NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Inverted question mark and exclamation point in Spanish

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Punctuation The term punctuation has two different linguistic meanings: in general, the act and the effect of punctuating, i. ...

apostrophe ( ’ ' )
brackets ( ), [ ], { }, < >
colon ( : )
comma ( , )
dashes ( ‒, –, —, ― )
ellipsis ( …, ... )
exclamation mark ( ! )
full stop/period ( . )
guillemets ( « » )
hyphen ( -, ‐ )
question mark ( ? )
quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” )
semicolon ( ; )
slash/stroke ( / )
solidus ( ∕ )
For the prime symbol (â€²) used for feet and inches, see Prime (symbol). ... For technical reasons, :) and some similar combinations starting with : redirect here. ... The colon (:) is a punctuation mark, visually consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line. ... A comma ( , ) is a punctuation mark. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Distinguish from ellipse. ... an exclamation mark An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, !, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Guillemets, also called angle quotes, are line segments, pointed as if arrows (Â« or Â»), sometimes forming a complementary set of punctuation marks used as a form of quotation mark. ... This article is about the punctuation mark. ... The question mark(?) (also known as an interrogation point, query,[1] or eroteme) is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence. ... Quotation marks or inverted commas (also called quotes and speech marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech, a quotation, a phrase or a word. ... A semicolon ( ; ) is a punctuation mark. ... A slash or stroke, /, is a punctuation mark. ... A solidus, oblique or slash, /, is a punctuation mark. ...

Interword separation

spaces ( ) ( ) ( )
interpunct ( · )
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A space is a punctuation convention for providing interword separation in some scripts, including the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic. ... An interpunct Â· is a small dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script, being perhaps the first consistent visual representation of word boundaries in written language. ...

General typography

ampersand ( & )
asterisk ( * )
at ( @ )
backslash ( )
bullet ( • )
caret ( ^ )
currency ( ¤ ) ¢, $, €, £, ¥, ₩, ₪
dagger/obelisk ( † ) ( ‡ )
degree ( ° )
dele
emoticons
inverted exclamation point ( ¡ )
inverted question mark ( ¿ )
number sign ( # )
numero sign ( № )
percent and related signs
( %, ‰, ‱ )
pilcrow ( ¶ )
prime ( ′ )
section sign ( § )
tilde/swung dash ( ~ )
umlaut/diaeresis ( ¨ )
underscore/understrike ( _ )
vertical/pipe/broken bar ( |, ¦ )
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The roman ampersand at left is stylized, but the italic one at right reveals its origin in the Latin word An ampersand (&), also commonly called an and sign, is a logogram representing the conjunction and. ... This article refers to the typographical symbol. ... â€œ@â€ redirects here. ... First introduced in 1960 by Bob Bemer , the backslash, , is a typographical mark (glyph) used chiefly in computing. ... In typography, a bullet is a typographical symbol or glyph used to introduce items in a list, like below, also known as the point of a bullet: This is the text of a list item. ... A caret in the Arial font Caret is the name for the symbol ^ in ASCII and some other character sets. ... A two cent euro coin A US penny In currency, the cent is a monetary unit that equals th of the basic unit of value. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The euro (€; ISO 4217 code EUR) is the currency of twelve of the twenty-five nations that form the European Union (and four outside it, as well as Montenegro and Kosovo), which form the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). ... The Pound sign (Â£) is the symbol for Pound sterling, the currency of the United Kingdom, and some other currencies of the same name in other countries. ... Â¥9 Chinese price sticker Â¥ is a currency sign used for the following currencies: Chinese yuan (CNY) Japanese yen (JPY) The base unit of the two currencies above share the same Chinese character (åœ“/å…ƒ/å††), pronounced yuan in Mandarin Chinese and en in Standard Japanese. ... â‚© is a currency sign that is used for the following currencies: North Korean won South Korean won Woolong, a fictional currency in Cowboy Bebop Category: ... â‚ª â‚ª is a currency sign that is used for the Israeli new sheqel currency which replaced the Israeli sheqel in 1985. ... Everyone please stop nitpicking on the use of daggers in theoldnewthing blog! This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Common degree symbol This article describes the typographical or mathematical symbol. ... A dele or deleatur. ... An emoticon (pronounced (IPA) ) is a small piece of specialized ASCII art (usually two to five characters, always on a single line) used in text messages as informal markup to indicate emotions and attitudes that would be conveyed by body language in face-to-face communications. ... Number sign in Arial font Number sign is one name for the symbol #, and is the preferred Unicode name for the codepoint represented by that glyph. ... The Numero sign (U+2116) or Number sign is used in many languages to indicate ordinal numbering, especially in names and titles, rather than the US-derived number sign, #. For example, instead of Number 4 Privet Drive or #4 Privet Drive, one could write â„– 4 Privet Drive. The symbol is... The percent sign (%) is the symbol used to indicate a percentage (that the preceding number is divided by one hundred). ... A pilcrow from the font Gentium, designed by J. Victor Gaultney, 2002. ... This article is not about the symbol for the set of prime numbers, â„™. The prime (â€², Unicode U+2032, ′) is a symbol with many mathematical uses: A complement in set theory: Aâ€² is the complement of the set A A point related to another (e. ... The section sign The section sign (Â§; Unicode U+00A7, HTML entity §) is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document, such as a legal code. ... The tilde (~) is a grapheme with several uses. ... The umlaut mark (or simply umlaut) and the trema or diaeresis mark (or simply diaeresis) are two diacritics consisting of a pair of dots placed over a letter. ... The underscore _ is the character with ASCII value 95. ... Vertical bar, verti-bar, vertical line, divider line, or pipe is the name of the character (|). Broken bar (Â¦) is a separate character. ...

Uncommon typography

asterism ( ⁂ )
therefore sign ( ∴ )
lozenge ( ◊ )
interrobang ( ‽ )
irony mark ( ؟ )
reference mark ( ※ )
sarcasm mark ( )
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In typography, an asterism is a rare symbol consisting of three asterisks placed in a triangle, used to call attention to a passage or to separate sub-chapters in a book. ... In a mathematical proof, the therefore sign is a symbol that is sometimes placed before a logical consequence, such as the conclusion of a syllogism. ... A lozenge (â—Š) is a form of rhombus. ... The interrobang (//) () is a rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation mark. ... The Irony mark (ØŸ) (French: point dâ€™ironie) is a punctuation mark that purports to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. ... This page lists Japanese typographic symbols which are not included in kana or kanji. ... This section does not cite any references or sources. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

The inverted question mark and inverted exclamation point in Spanish are used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences, respectively.

Usage

The inverted question mark (¿) is a punctuation mark indicating a question and is placed before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause. It is an inverted form of the standard symbol '?', recognized by speakers of other languages using the Latin alphabet. In most languages, a single question mark is used and only at the end of an interrogative sentence: "How old are you?" This was also once true for Spanish. The inverted question mark was not adopted until long after the decision of the Real Academia in the second edition of La Ortografía de la Real Academia (1754) to recommend it as the symbol indicating the beginning of a question in written Spanish —¿Cuántos años tienes? ("How old are you?"). The Real Academia also ordered the same system for statements of exclamation using the symbols '¡' and '!'. In mixed declarative/interrogative sentences, only the clause that asks a question is isolated with the inverted question mark. A good example would be: Aunque no puedes ir con ellos, ¿quieres ir con nosotros? (Although you can't go with them, would you like to go with us?) The question mark(?) (also known as an interrogation point, query,[1] or eroteme) is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence. ... The term punctuation has two different linguistic meanings: in general, the act and the effect of punctuating, i. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy or RAE) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. ... The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy or RAE) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. ...

Adoption of these new rules was slow, and there are even books from the nineteenth century that do not use either of the opening symbols, '¡' or '¿' It did finally become standard usage, most likely due to its practicality given that Spanish syntax in many cases does not help the reader determine at what moment a sentence in progress is a question. For example, without any punctuation to indicate if they are questions or not, the sentences ¿Hablas bien el español? ("Do you speak Spanish well?") and Hablas bien el español ("You speak Spanish well") are identical in writing. With longer sentences, using the punctuation indicates that a question has started.

An alternative usage, which did not become widely adopted, was to use the inverted question mark only when the question was long, or when there was sufficient risk of ambiguity, but not for short sentences or those that were clearly questions such as Quién viene? ("Who goes there?") This is the criterion used in Catalan (although certain Catalan-language authorities, such as Joan Solà, insist that both the opening and closing question marks should be used for the sake of clarity). The influence of English could be reinstating this old criterion in Spanish as well.^{[citation needed]} Catalan IPA: (catalÃ IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia (in the latter with the name of Valencian), and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of...

Some Spanish-language writers, among them Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, have refused to use the inverted question mark in whatever context. Furthermore, it is common that in Internet chat rooms or instant messaging people now only use the single, ending symbol ('?') to form a question since it saves time typing. Given that these are informal settings, this may seem to be of little importance; however, some see this as a problem, fearing (and claiming) that young people are now inappropriately extending this practice to homework and essays, where it counts as an error. Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 â€“ September 23, 1973) was the penname of the Chilean writer and communist politician Ricardo Eliecer NeftalÃ Reyes Basoalto. ...

Unspoken uncertainty is sometimes expressed in writing (informal notes, comics) by ¿? and surprise by ¡!, but simple ? and ! are also seen.

¡ … ?

Although it has now fallen into disuse, it is actually correct usage in Spanish to begin a sentence with an opening inverted exclamation mark ('¡') and end it with a question mark ('?'), or vice-versa, for statements that are questions but also have a clear sense of exclamation or surprise such as: ¡Y tú quién te crees? ("Who do you think you are?!"). This is similar to the proposed English interrobang. Normally, the four signs are used, always with a type in the outer side and the other in the inner side (¿¡Y tú quién te crees!?, ¡¿Y tú quién te crees?! ^[1]) an exclamation mark An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, !, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. ... The interrobang (//) () is a rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation mark. ...

Typing "¿" and "¡" on computers

"¿" is available in all Spanish and Latin American keyboard layouts. On English keyboards under Windows, the inverted question mark can be entered by holding down the Alt key and pressing 0191, 168 or 5544 on the number pad. The inverted exclamation point can be entered by holding down the Alt key and pressing 0161, 173 or 8877 on the number pad. In LaTeX documents, the "¿" is represented by an ">" sign. The LaTeX logo, typeset with LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. ...

On the Mac OS X platform (or when using the "US International"/us-intl keyboard layout on Windows and Linux), "¡" and "¿" can be entered by pressing Alt + 1 and Alt + / respectively.

References

The Real Academia EspaÃ±ola (Spanish for Royal Spanish Academy, RAE) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. ...

Contents

Usage

¡ … ?

Typing "¿" and "¡" on computers

References

See also