Upside-down question and exclamation marks: Difference between revisions

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The upside-down question mark {{char|¿}} is written before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause to indicate that a question follows. It is a rotated form of the standard symbol "?" recognized by speakers of other languages written with the [[Latin script]]. A regular question mark is written at the end of the sentence or clause.

Upside-down punctuation is especially critical{{dubious|reason=nothing in this part indicates it is any more critical in Spanish than in any of the vast number of other languages with the same syntactic phenomenon that don't use these punctuation marks}}important in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] since the syntax of the language means that both statements and questions or exclamations could have the same wording.<ref name="Rosetta">{{cite web|last=Galavitz |first=Rowena |date=September 5, 2019 |title=What's Up With The Upside Down Question Mark? |url=https://blog.rosettastone.com/whats-up-with-the-upside-down-question-mark/ |website=[[Rosetta Stone Inc.]] |access-date=April 10, 2020 |quote=The upside-down question marks in Spanish are needed to let the reader know immediately that a question is involved.}}</ref> "Do you like summer?" and "You like summer." are translated respectively as {{lang|es|"¿Te gusta el verano?"|italic=yes}} and {{lang|es|"Te gusta el verano."|italic=yes}} (There is not always a difference between the wording of a [[yes–no question]] and the corresponding statement in Spanish.)

In sentences that are both declarative and interrogative, the clause that asks a question is isolated with the starting-symbol upside-down question mark, for example: {{lang|es|"Si no puedes ir con ellos, ¿quieres ir con nosotros?"|italic=yes}} ("If you cannot go with them, would you like to go with us?"), not *{{lang|es|"¿Si no puedes ir con ellos, quieres ir con nosotros?"|italic=yes}} This helps to recognize questions and exclamations in long sentences.

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These new rules were slow to be adopted: there are 19th-century books in which the printer uses neither "¡" nor "¿".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carrithers|first1=Michael|last2=Candea|first2=Matei|last3=Sykes|first3=Karen|last4=Holbraad|first4=Martin|last5=Venkatesan|first5=Soumya|date=May 28, 2010|title=Ontology is just another word for culture |url=https://archive.today/20250626220935/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308275X09364070|url-access=subscription|website=[[Critique of Anthropology]]|publisher=[[Sage Journals]]|archive-url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275x09364070|archive-date=June 26, 2025 |access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref>

Outside of the Spanish-speaking world, [[John Wilkins]] proposed using the upside-down exclamation mark "¡" as a symbol at the end of a sentence to [[irony punctuation|denote irony]] in 1668. He was one of many, including [[Desiderius Erasmus]], who felt there was a need for such a punctuation mark, but Wilkins' proposal, like the other attempts, failed to take hold.<ref name="Houston2013">{{cite book|first=Keith|last=Houston|title=Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3R2SAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA214 214] |date=September 24, 2013|publisher=[[W. W. Norton]] |isbn=978-0-393-24154-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Popova|first=Maria|title=Ironic Serif: A Brief History of Typographic Snark and the Failed Crusade for an Irony Mark |url=http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/27/shady-characters-irony/|work=[[Brain Pickings]]|date=September 27, 2013 }}</ref>

==Adoption==

Some writers omit the upside-down question mark in the case of a short unambiguous question such as: {{lang|es|"Quién viene?"|italic=yes}} ("Who comes?"). This is the criterion in [[Galician language|Galician]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Normas ortográficas e morfolóxicas do idioma galego |trans-title=Orthographic rules and morphology of the Galician language |publisher=[[Royal Galician Academy|Real Academia Galega]] |isbn=978-84-87987-78-6 |page=27 |edition=23ª |chapter-url=https://www.lingua.gal/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=1647069&name=DLFE-10938.pdff |access-date=December 25, 2021 |language=gl |chapter=7. Os signos de interrogación e de admiración |year=2012 |quote=Para facilitar a lectura e evitar ambigüidades pode-rase indicar o inicio destas entoacións cos signos ¿ e ¡, respectivamente. }}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://portaldaspalabras.gal/video/posicion-signo-de-interrogacion-e-exclamacion/ |title=A posición do signo de interrogación (?) e exclamación (!) |trans-title= The position of the question mark (?) and exclamation mark (!) |date=October 21, 2017 |website=Portal das Palabras |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref> and formerly in [[Catalan language|Catalan]].<ref>{{citation |chapter=Els signes d'interrogació i d'admiració (Acord de l'11 de juny de 1993) |title=Documents de la Secció Filològica |trans-title=The signs of questioning and admiration |volume=III |year=1996 |author=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |pages=92–94 |chapter-url=http://www.iecat.net/institucio/seccions/Filologica/llenguacatalana/documentsnormatius/docsf2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906173859/http://www.iecat.net/institucio/seccions/Filologica/llenguacatalana/documentsnormatius/docsf2.htm |archive-date=September 6, 2011 |author-link=Institut d'Estudis Catalans |access-date=May 7, 2012}}</ref> Certain Catalan-language authorities, such as [[Joan Solà i Cortassa]], insist that both the opening and closing question marks be used for clarity.<ref name="Houston2013" /> The current [[Institute for Catalan Studies]] prescription is never to use the upside-down marks for Catalan.<ref>{{citation |chapter=Els signes d'entonació inicials |title=Manual d'estil. La redacció i l'edició de textes. |trans-title=Manual of style. Writing and editing texts. |author=Josep M. Mestres |author2=Joan Coste |author3=Mireira Oliva |author4=Ricard Fité |edition=4 |date=2009 |pages=197–200 |access-date=March 5, 2022 |chapter-url=https://estil.llocs.iec.cat/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2019/02/07_Pag_167-278_p-4.pdf |publisher=[[Institut d'Estudis Catalans]] }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Some Spanish-language writers, among them Nobel laureate [[Pablo Neruda]] (1904–1973), refuse to use the upside-down question mark.<ref>{{cite web |last=Neruda |first=Pablo |date=June 2008 |title=''Antología Fundamental'' |trans-title=''Fundamental Anthology'' |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425154155/http://www.pehuen.cl/docman/neruda/antlogia-fundamental/download.html |archive-url=http://www.pehuen.cl/docman/neruda/antlogia-fundamental/download.html |archive-date=April 25, 2012 |access-date=November 10, 2011}}&nbsp;{{small|(556&nbsp;KB)}} {{ISBN|978-956-16-0169-7}}. p. 7 {{in lang|es}}</ref>

Upside-down marks are often omitted when [[texting]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}

==Mixtures== <!-- Courtesy note per [{WP:RSECT]]: [[Interrobang#Inverted interrobang]] links here. -->

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==Computer usage==

[[File:KB Spanish.svg|thumb|420px|The [[Languages of Spain|Spanish]] keyboard provides the symbols 'as standard' (top row, right).]]

===Encodings===

{{char|¡}} and {{char|¿}} are in the [[Latin-1 Supplement (Unicode block)| "Latin-1 Supplement" Unicode block]], which is inherited from [[ISO-8859-1]]:

* {{unichar|00A1|inverted exclamation mark}}

* {{unichar|00BF|inverted question mark}}

===Typing the character===

[[File:Left side of modern US-International keyboard.JPG|thumb|upright 1.25|The {{char|¡}} character is accessible using [[AltGr]]+1 on a modern [[US-International]] keyboard. It is also available using a conventional US keyboard by switching to the US-International [[keyboard layout]].]]

{{char|¿}} and {{char|¡}} are available in all [[keyboard layout]]s designed for Spanish-speaking countries. Smartphones typically offer these if {{keypress|?}} or {{keypress|!}} is held down in the on-screen keyboard. Auto-correct will often turn a normal mark typed at the start of a sentence to the upside-down one.

On systems with an [[AltGr]] key (actual or emulated via [[right Alt key]]) and Extended (or 'International') [[keyboard mapping]] set, the symbols can be accessed directly, though the sequence varies by OS and locality and is documented by the vendor. Otherwise see [[Unicode input]].

==See also==

* [[Spanish orthography]]

* {{anli|Unicode input}}

==References==