Question mark: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:08, 1 January 2007

Revision as of 04:42, 2 January 2007

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==Spacing before question mark==

Some people place a space between the end of their sentence and the question mark. This usage is thought to stem from the French language and is known as [[French spacing]]. In French a space is always placed before question marks, exclamation marks, as well as colons and semicolons (See [[:fr:Ponctuation|Ponctuation]] at French Wikipedia). In English, however, the insertion of this extra blank space is generally considered bad form. The Oxford English Dictionary specifies that no space should precede the question mark. Some English-language books may appear to have these spaces. However, on closer inspection they are not full spaces, tending instead to be half to three-quarters the width of a space. These are not considered spaces; instead, this is simply a form of [[kerning]] used to make the text less cramped and thus easier to read. (For detailed discussion of spaces ''after'' a question mark, see [[Full stop]].) Or is it the matter of being in which the following was just behind many yet to come?????????

==Variants in other languages and in history==