Periods, commas, and question marks are all types of punctuation.
This category also includes exclamation marks and less common punctuation like em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens. Sometimes, people refer to all of these as punctuation marks.
The word for question mark in Spanish is “signo de interrogación.” To refer to the upside-down (inverted) question mark (¿) that comes at the beginning of Spanish questions, you would say “signo de interrogación invertido.”
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Spanish uses question marks in pairs: an upside-down (or inverted) question mark (¿) at the beginning of the sentence and a regular question mark at the end. For example: “¿De dónde eres?” [Where are you from?]
To type an inverted question mark, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:
How to type an upside-down question mark
Microsoft Word
Mac
ctrl + alt + shift + ?
shift + option + ?
When using a program other than Word on a PC, there is no one shortcut that works consistently. It may be best to pull up the special character menu by pressing the Windows key + the period key.
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A question mark goes inside quotation marks if the quoted material itself is a question. Otherwise, the question mark goes outside of the quotation marks.
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When writing in Spanish, you can use either regular quotation marks (“ ”), known as comillas inglesas, or angular quotation marks (« »), known as comillas angulares or comillas latinas.
You should consult your style guide for which format is preferred and be consistent throughout your document.
To type angular quotation marks, use the following keyboard shortcuts:
Windows
Mac
Opening angular quotation mark («)
Ctrl + Alt + [
Option + \
Closing angular quotation mark (»)
Ctrl + Alt + ]
Option + Shift + \
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In American English, single quotation marks (‘ ’) are used to indicate quotes within quotes.
In British English, single quotation marks are typically used in the ways double quotation marks are in American English. So, quotes within quotes are indicated with double quotation marks.
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Typically, a period goes before the ending quotation marks in American English.
However, in British English, the period only goes inside the quotation marks if the quotation itself is a full sentence. Otherwise, it goes outside. Additionally, British English typically uses single quotation marks instead of double.
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French uses guillemets (« ») instead of quotation marks (e.g., The sign said: « Allumez vos feux »). Note that there is always a space after the opening guillemet and before the closing guillemet.
To type guillemets, use the following keyboard shortcuts:
Windows
Mac
Opening guillemet («)
Ctrl + Alt + [
Option + \
Closing guillemet (»)
Ctrl + Alt + ]
Option + Shift + \
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A hyphen (-) is shorter than an en dash and is used to connect words in compound adjectives (e.g., “fast-paced,” “old-fashioned”) or compound nouns (e.g., “seven-year-olds,” “jack-of-all-trades”).
An en dash (–) is slightly longer and can be used for several purposes:
To indicate number ranges (e.g., “2020–2024”)
To indicate a relationship or connection (e.g., “the London–Dublin train,” “the employer–employee relationship”)
To connect complex compound adjectives (e.g., “the Booker Prize–winning novelist”)
In many everyday writing situations, the hyphen is used in place of the en dash because it is easier to type. However, it is important to know the difference for academic and professional writing contexts.
QuillBot’s Grammar Checker can help you ensure you’re using different types of punctuation correctly.
There are no words that are never capitalized in English because any word that begins a sentence should be capitalized. Additionally, words that are part of titles (except for articles, coordinating conjunctions, and short prepositions) are generally capitalized.
When not used in titles or as the first word of a sentence, words other than proper nouns and the first-person pronoun “I” are generally lowercased in English.
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The term “m dash” is a misspelling of em dash, which is the long dash used to indicate a break or to set off additional information in a sentence (e.g., “The rain—which has not let up for days—is predicted to end on Sunday”).
Typically, there is no space around an em dash (e.g., “The flight—which had already been delayed three times—was canceled”).
One notable exception is that Associated Press (AP) style requires spaces around an em dash, so you may see this in news articles (e.g., “The flight — which had already been delayed three times — was canceled”).
Consult your style guide to see what is preferred. All of the major academic style guides (APA, MLA, and Chicago) recommend not putting spaces around em dashes.
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An en dash (–) is shorter and is used to indicate number ranges (e.g., “1958–1985”) or as a substitute for the word “to” in phrases like “the Albuquerque–Los Angeles flight.”
An em dash (—) is longer and is used like parentheses or commas to set off extra information or like a colon or semicolon to indicate a break in a sentence. For example: “My brother—well, technically my half-brother—is coming to visit this weekend.”
In British English, en dashes are used like em dashes. In this case, they have a space on either side. For example: “My brother – well, technically my half-brother – is coming to visit this weekend.”
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In Microsoft Word, there are several ways to type an em dash(—):
While typing a sentence, you can type two hyphens (-) where you want the em dash to be. As you continue typing, Word will automatically convert this to an em dash.
On a Mac computer, you can hold down option + shift and press the hyphen key (to the right of the 0).
On a Windows computer, you can hold down Alt and type 0151 on the numeric keypad.
If you don’t have a numeric keypad, you can press the Windows button + period (.) to bring up the symbols menu.
You can navigate to “Symbols” under the “Insert” menu to manually add an em dash.
To type an em dash (—) on a Mac computer, hold down option + shift and press the hyphen key (to the right of the 0).
Alternatively, for many programs and applications, you can type an em dash by typing two or three hyphens (-) in a row. The program will automatically convert this to an em dash.