Use of Upside-Down Punctuation
Question: What's with the upside-down question marks and exclamation points?
Answer: The upside-down or inverted question marks and exclamation points of Spanish are
unique to the languages of Spain. But they make a lot of sense: When you're reading, you can
tell long before the end of a sentence whether you're dealing with a question, something that
isn't always obvious when the sentence doesn't start with an interrogative pronoun such as
qué or cómo.
The important thing to remember when you're writing Spanish is that the inverted question
mark (or exclamation) goes at the beginning part of the question (or exclamation), not at the
beginning of the sentence if the two are different. See these examples:
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Pablo, ¿adónde vas? Pablo, where are you going?
Quiero saber, ¿cuándo es tu cumpleaños? I want to know, when is your birthday?
Estoy cansado, ¿y tú? I'm tired, are you?
Sin embargo, ¡tengo frío! Nevertheless, I'm cold!
Note that the question part of the sentence does not typically begin with a capitalized letter as
it would if it were considered part of a separate sentence. Note also that if parts of the
sentence that aren't part of the question come after the question, the whole sentence is
included within the question marks:
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¿Adónde vas, Pablo? Where are you going, Pablo?
If a sentence is a question and an exclamation at the same time, something for which the
English language has no good written equivalent, it is possible to combine the question and
exclamation marks in ways shown below. The Royal Spanish Academy prefers the usage in
the third and fourth sentences:
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¿Cómo lo hace! How does she do it? (To translate the Spanish well, this might be said
in an incredulous tone. An alternate translation might be "I don't see how she does
it!")
¡Me quieres? You love me? (The punctuation may indicate a lack of belief in what is
being responded to.)
¡¿Qué viste?! What are you seeing? (The tone of voice may suggest "What in the
world are you seeing?")
¿¡Qué estás diciendo!? What are you saying? (The tone of voice may indicate
disbelief.)
To indicate an extremely strong exclamation, it is acceptable to use two or three exclamation
points (not more): ¡¡¡Idiota!!! Idiot!