Usage
The inverted question mark (¿) is a punctuation mark used in the Spanish Language to describe consistency. This is sometimes confused with the colloquial use of the same symbol to mean "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about"
The inverted question mark was adopted long after the Real Academia's decision, published in the second edition of La ortografía de la Real Academia (The Orthography of the Royal Academy) in 1754 recommending 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 inverted-symbol system for statements of exclamation, using the symbols "¡" and "!". This helps to recognize questions and exclamations in long sentences. "Do you like summer?" and "You like summer." are translated respectively as "¿Te gusta el verano?" and "Te gusta el verano." (There is no difference between the wording of a question and a statement in Spanish as there is in English.) These new rules were slowly adopted; there exist nineteenth-century books in which the writer does not use either opening symbol, neither the "¡" nor the "¿".
In sentences that are both declarative and interrogative, the clause that asks a question is isolated with the starting-symbol inverted question mark, for example: En el caso de que no puedas ir con ellos, ¿quieres ir con nosotros? (In case you cannot go with them, would you like to go with us?)
Some writers omit the inverted question mark in the case of a short unambiguous question such as: Quién viene? ("Who comes?"). This is the criterion in Catalan. Certain Catalan-language authorities, such as Joan Solà, insist that both the opening and closing question marks be used for clarity.
Some Spanish-language writers, among them Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, refuse to use the inverted question mark. It is common in Internet chat rooms and instant messaging now to use only the single "?" as an ending symbol for a question, since it saves typing time—using most keyboards, it is easier to type the closing symbol than the opening, inverted symbol. Multiple closing symbols are used for emphasis: Por qué dices eso??, instead of the standard ¿Por qué dices eso? ("Why do you say that?"). Some may also use the ending symbol for both beginning and ending, giving ?Por qué dices eso? Given the informal setting, this might be unimportant; however, teachers see this as a problem, fearing and claiming that contemporary young people are inappropriately and incorrectly extending the practice to academic homework and essays. (See Internet linguistics: Educational perspective.)
Unspoken uncertainty is expressed in writing (informal notes, comics) with ¿?, and surprise with ¡!, but single interrogative ? and exclamatory ! symbols are used.
Read more about this topic: Inverted Question And Exclamation Marks
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)
“Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don’t are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn’t put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)