What do those upside down exclamation points and question marks mean?
There are always these upside down exclamation points and question marks before some words. What are they for or what do they mean? I don't get their purpose. These are the things I'm talking about- "¿ and ¡" so what are they for?
2 Answers
The reason why in Spanish you must use the "open" question and exclamation/interjection marks is because in Spanish you can write a sentence in the same order as you would write a question. So, if you are reading and do not know upfront that that is a question or an exclamation,instead of the narrator telling the story, you will have to go back and read it as a question/exclamation.
- I.E. ¡Vamos a la casa esta tarde! = ¿Vamos a la casa esta tarde?
- ¡No tienes miedo! = ¿No tienes miedo?
- In English by switching the first two words you will be able to tell in a question or a normal sentence.
- I.E We are going out to eat tonight! = Are we going out to eat tonight?
- Now, in English it happens to me several times when I am reading, that I find out that the sentence I am reading was actually said by one of the characters with an exclamation/interjection and not the narrator, then I have to go back and read as such. By opening the sentence with an exclamation mark, I immediately know that this is not the narrator talking.
The inverted question mark tells you that the following phrase is a question and like wise the exclamation marks much like when you are coming up to the traffic lights in your car, when you see them change to amber you know there is a red for stop coming up.
