Upside-down question and exclamation marks: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:42, 31 July 2025

Revision as of 14:49, 31 July 2025

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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|date=July 2025}}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.