why is there a reverse question mark and exclamation mark in spanish
why are there reverse marks in spanish in front of sentences ?
2 Answers
The reason is that in Spansh in most cases the only way to tell that somebody is asking a question is by intonation. Someone could say:
Va al cine (He is going to the cinema)
In this case this is an affirmation However:
¿Va al cine?
This is a question.
As you can see there is no way to tell it is a question without the question marks. The reason it begins with a question mark is so that the speaker knows immediately to employ the correct intonation. If you compare that to English you get:
He is going to the cinema
Is he going to the cinema?
The second is obviously a question due to the different word order we use and so doesn't require the upside-down question mark.
Completing Robert-Austi's explanation, English has also the auxiliary "do/did":
Sabes algo = You know something ¿Sabes algo? = Do you know something?
