Spanish Punctuation & Writing

Inverted ¿? and ¡!, «guillemets», different comma rules. Write Spanish correctly.

Inverted question and exclamation marks

Spanish uses opening marks at the START of the question/exclamation

¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)
¡Qué bonito! (How beautiful!)
¿Vienes o no? (Are you coming or not?)

The opening mark goes where the question/exclamation actually begins

Si quieres, ¿por qué no vienes? (If you want, why don't you come?)
María, ¡ven aquí! (María, come here!)
The opening mark doesn't always start the sentence.

Quotation marks

Spanish traditionally uses «guillemets» but "English quotes" are increasingly common

«Hola», dijo María. (formal/traditional)
"Hola", dijo María. (increasingly common)
Hierarchy: «...» then "..." then '...'

Numbers and decimals

EnglishSpanish
1,0001.000 (period for thousands)
3.143,14 (comma for decimals)
$1,000.501.000,50 $

Other differences

Dates: day/month/year

5/3/2025 = 5 de marzo de 2025 (NOT March 5th)
In English 5/3 = May 3rd, in Spanish = March 5th!

Dialogue: use em dash (—) not quotes for dialogue in novels

—Hola —dijo María—. ¿Cómo estás?
—Bien, gracias —respondió Juan.

Capital letters: less common in Spanish

Days: lunes (not Lunes)
Months: enero (not Enero)
Languages: español (not Español)
Nationalities: mexicano (not Mexicano)

Quick quiz

1. Questions need _____ at the beginning.

2. "5/3/2025" in Spanish means _____ de marzo.

3. 1,000.50 in Spanish = _____.

4. Days of the week in Spanish are _____.

5. Languages like "español" are _____.

6. Traditional Spanish quotation marks are _____.

7. The ¿ goes where the _____ begins.

8. Spanish dialogue in novels uses _____.

9. Months in Spanish: enero is _____.

10. "¡Qué bonito!" has _____ marks.

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