Why are there two interrogation marks in spanish?

Question

Why is there an interrogation mark in front and one in the back when asked a question in Spanish?
¿ a donde vas?

I corrected your grammar. - Nathaniel, DIC 3, 2009

Answer 1

Have you ever been reading aloud in English and get to the end of a long sentence only to realize that it is not a statement but a question? And you worry about how to put that last little 'up' sound in your voice when you've only got the last syllable to work with?

Well, worry no more! Because in Spanish you know right from the get-go that you're dealing with an inflection-rising question. Gone are the days of uncertainty. With Spanish all the cards are on the table. No gimmicks, no hidden fees...

Nope, I can't say I have had that problem. :P - Lasairfiona, DIC 3, 2009

Perfect answer! - --Mariana--, DIC 3, 2009

This is the funniest thing I have read in 2011! Thanks for making this drab thursday great :D - Garysandstorm, MAY 12, 2011

Answer 2

Spanish doesn't have question words such as in the English question: Did you do it?

A way to directly translate that into Spanish is: ¿Lo hiciste? Did you do it?

If you take out the ¿?, you have a statement: Lo hiciste. You did it.

When speaking, you can inflect to show it is a question. In writing that is not possible and therefore you need the ¿?. And once you do it for one kind of question, you look silly if you don't do it for them all.

Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. I don't know if it is actually correct, but, man, it sounds good. - webdunce, DIC 4, 2009

Answer 3

I guess you could ask "Why is there only one question mark in English?"

I like your answer. - 00e657d4, DIC 3, 2009

I would have said "A better question would be...." Spanish usage makes more sense to me. - 0074b507, DIC 3, 2009

Answer 4

One thing about the upside down question mark is, that you do not need to place it at the beginning of the sentence.

Fuimos al parque, ¿Es así?

We went to the park, right?

I do think that it is much better when reading to have the question mark to start the question to make it easier to have proper intonation.

Fuimos al parque ¿verdad? We went to the park, didn't we? - kenwilliams, DIC 3, 2009

Answer 5

I am not totally sure why they have them but if you notice spanish is sort of backwards from english. We say i don't know and they say no sé. They tend to like to emphasize what they are saying so I believe it is more for emphasis then anything. I am not sure if I am totally correct though.

Answer 6

If you think about the logic of it, it is quite intelligent to start a sentence with a question mark to indicate what you are about to read is a question. Without that, you have to read a few words first to know whether it will be a question or not.

In the early days before computers it must have been very difficult turning your typewriter upside down every time you wanted to put a question mark at the beginning.

Don't be foolish! You took the paper out and turned it upside down and then re-inserted it. - 0074b507, DIC 3, 2009

It does beg the question about why isn't it ?Cómo está. - 0074b507, DIC 3, 2009

¿ɹǝdɐd ǝɥʇ ɹo 'sıɥʇ ɹoɟ punoɹɐ ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ʎɯ uɹnʇ ı pıp - 00f2b5a1, DIC 3, 2009

How did you do that? - sheila-foster, DIC 3, 2009

My computer has a switch for typing upside down question marks and so I kept my finger on it! - 00f2b5a1, DIC 3, 2009

Interesting that it also changes to right to left. Nice for some languages. - 0074b507, DIC 3, 2009

That was upside down typing was really cool. - billy-jones, DIC 4, 2009

Answer 7

I was going to say something similar to Lasairfiona but it's the grammar rather than the words in English, the word did doesn't always indicate a question

Did you do it? Being the question

You did do it. Being a statement.

Of course if you say "You did do it?" with the intonation of a question it becomes one, just as in spanish.