Punctuation: question and exclamation marks
Los signos de interrogación (Question marks)
Question marks are used in Spanish to indicate that the sentence between the symbols is a question. In Spanish, unlike in English, there are two symbols: one that opens the question and another that closes it. It is obligatory to use both symbols. Have a look:
Note that the opening mark has the dot at the top and the closing mark has the dot at the bottom:
There should not be any space between the question marks and the letter just after or before it.
After a question mark, there should not be a full stop [US: period].
This would be incorrect:
María, ¿por qué has venido?. Te dije que te quedaras en casa.
María, why did you come? I told you to stay at home.
Los signos de exclamación/admiración (Exclamation marks)
Spanish exclamation marks give the sentence between the symbols a specific intonation: they give emphasis to the sentence with the idea of attracting the listener's or reader's attention. They show some kind of emotion: surprise, sadness, happiness, admiration, etc.
There are two symbols in Spanish - the opening sign has the dot at the top and the closing sign at the bottom. Both are obligatory:
Here are some examples:
After an exclamation point, there should not be a full stop [US: period].
This would be incorrect:
María, ¡Cuánto tiempo!. La última vez que te vi tenías 15 años.
María, it's been so long! Last time I saw you, you were 15 years old.
For both interrogative and exclamatory sentences, the opening symbols may not always be placed at the beginning of a sentence. The opening sign is placed just before the word where the question or exclamation begins. For example:
