He said She said

Question

In spanish, when she said, "this", or he said, "that", do we use parentheses as in english?

Hi Ron33322. I was wondering if you perhaps mean "quotes" rather than parentheses. - Janice, Sep 19, 2009

Spanish Quotation Marks─ « "Alt+174" and » "Alt+175" «Words go here» - Moe, Sep 19, 2009

Answer 1

We use quotes in English, so I was surprised to encounter different markings in some Spanish texts: >. However, I wonder how people type that? I have just used two characters.

Your query prompted me to search for such a symbol on the Spanish keyboard. In the meantime, I found an article here on the Web at a German site for translators that lists the punctuation marks used in Spanish in an article by a woman named Andriana Ardave:

Period/full stop .

Comma ,

Semicolon ;

Colon :

Suspension points …

Question Marks ¿?

Exclamation points ¡!

Parenthesis ( )

Square bracket []

Hyphen/dash –

and the last entry: (I put those symbols I had seen in bold)

Quotation Marks " ", ´ `, « »

Ms. Ardave's article is in English. You can read it here: Spanish-punctuation

Spanish Quotation Marks─ « "Alt+174" and » "Alt+175" «Words go here» - Moe, Sep 19, 2009

Answer 2

By th way, in British English, we say "inverted commas" instead of quotes.

Noun 1.inverted comma - a punctuation mark used to attribute the enclosed text to someone else

Oh yes, I have read that...And also I sometimes see the symbols on the lower part of the written line at its beginning. " down near the bottom and the " at the top. - Janice, Sep 19, 2009

Answer 3

Searching for the "long dash" I remember having seen used to introduce "quoted" text in Spanish, I came across this interesting information about punctuation in Spanish from elcastellano.org: (about punctuation)

I see that my "back-to-back" dashes have name! guión (-), raya (—), In fact, I found all the Spanish names for the marks mentioned in the article I quoted in the first text from Andriana Ardave.

coma ( , )

punto y coma ( ; )

dos puntos ( : )

punto final ( . )

In another post someone ask about "ellipsis" ...and here we find it in this list as "puntos suspensivos" in Spanish:

puntos suspensivos ( ... )
principio de interrogación ( ¿ ) fin de interrogación ( ? ) principio de admiración ( ¡ )

I just read a thread about "false friends"...looks like I have found one in "principio de admiración" ...to continue:

fin de admiración ( ! )

paréntesis ( )

diéresis o crema ( ¨ )

comillas ( « » ; " )

Ah, a name, "comillas" for those little > that I still have not found on my Internationa Spanish keyboard ...and finally:

guión ( - ) raya ( — ) dos rayas ( = ).

Whoops! I forgot to add what I found about the "raya" : "la raya ... es [signo] de diálogo, o de separación de palabras, cláusulas o párrafos." - Janice, Sep 19, 2009

Spanish Quotation Marks─ « "Alt+174" and » "Alt+175" «Words go here» - Moe, Sep 19, 2009

Thank you. I actually use a (software) Spanish keyboard and should be able to find these "comillas" and the "raya" on a picture of the keyboard, but have not looked. In the meantime, you have given me a "workaround"... - Janice, Sep 20, 2009

Answer 4

Cuando uno dice tal cosa, se usa esta senal " por la parte enfrente de la frase, y su companero " por la parte atras. Es decir que es como lo hace en ingles. Bueno...Lisa me dijo "tal cosa" y depues lo hice.

Spanish Quotation Marks─ « "Alt+174" and » "Alt+175" «Words go here» - Moe, Sep 19, 2009

Answer 5

y th way, in British English, we say "inverted commas" instead of quotes.

Me confunde....eres espanola or de inglaterra? Te pregunto porque asumido que eres espanola. Yo supé que Paralee es de los EE.UU por la culpa de su accento. Pero no oi tu voz, entonces no tengo na mas que tu perfil.

Heidita is, no doubt, using the "royal 'we'". - samdie, Sep 19, 2009

Answer 6

I have also seen a long dash introduce what I would expect to see as quoted text, but I have not found a formal reference for this way to punctuate yet: "--" ...no space of course between the two dashes. I am still looking:--)