Punctuation
Table 1.2 contains a list of common punctuation marks with notes on their
use.Table 1.2 Spanish punctuation marks. Punto‘full stop’ or ‘period’ – in most Spanish-speaking
countries, with the notable exception of Mexico, this is
used in numbers where English would have a comma:
5.651.242‘5,651,242’.
... Puntos suspensivos‘dots’
, Coma– in most Spanish-speaking countries, with the
notable exception of Mexico, the comais used to
indicate decimals: 21,6(21 coma 6) ‘21.6’ (21 point 6).
: Dos puntos‘colon’ – used after salutations in letters:
Mi querida Ana:‘My dear Ana,’.
; Punto y coma‘semicolon’
¿ Principio de interrogación– unique to Spanish, it
occurs not only at the beginning of sentences, but
before interrogative phrases within sentences: Dime,
¿quieres ir o no?‘Tell me, do you want to go or not?’.
? Fin de interrogación
¡ Principio de exclamaciónor admiración– unique
to Spanish, it occurs not only at the beginning of
sentences, but before exclamations within sentences:
Me dijo, ¡hágalo ahora!‘He said to me, “Do it now!”’.
! Fin de exclamaciónor admiración
« », Comillas‘inverted commas’ – « »are still found in
‘’ “”Spanish to begin and end short quotations within a
sentence, or in other instances where English would use
‘ ’ or “ ”. In the press, however, they are replaced today
by “ ” or ‘ ’.
- Guión‘hyphen’ – less common than in English, since
many compound words in Spanish are written as single
words: antirrobo‘anti-theft’, francocanadiense
‘French-Canadian’.
(^1111) 1.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
12111
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
Punctuation