While this is the prevalent quotation mark used in France, " starts to catch on a bit. In my opinion, it is mainly due to the fact that « and » are not present

While this is the prevalent quotation mark used in France, " starts to catch on a bit. In my opinion, it is mainly due to the fact that « and » are not present on French keyboard layouts (and rather rare in general): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Keyboard_layouts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Keyboard_layout... Another issue is that you are supposed to type a non-braking space inside, which is a hassle, and often not present on keyboards either. Word processors usually take care of both these issues, replacing " with the appropriate (opening or closing) guillemet + space. Spaces are also used in Switzerland, but narrow (&nnbsp; instead of  ).