Why not periods? Why doesn’t every sentence in Spanish that isn’t a question or exclamation start with a period floating in the sky?
It’s because Spanish sentence structure is different from English. In Spanish the sentences “Can I tell you? (¿Te lo puedo decir?) and “I can tell you.” (Te lo puedo decir.) are formed the same way. The initial punctuation lets the reader know that the sentence is a question or exclamation or not so they can parse the sentence properly from the start.
all-knight-party@kbin.run 6 months ago
I would assume it's because it leads the reader to what tone to use in a given sentence. The question mark or exclamation point would be useful in tone throughout the whole sentence, but if neither is present in front of the sentence a regular reading tone could be assumed.
so why add a floating period when nothing being there allows for the same assumption and is much, much simpler and easier?
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Still learning Spanish but I believe this is correct, because you can insert a question mark into the middle of a sentence as well if the entire sentence isn’t a question.
Ex:
I have fish, do you want to cook it?
Tengo pescado, ¿quieres cocinarlo?
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 months ago
You can do that and it’s grammatically correct? :O
XEAL@lemm.ee 6 months ago
As a Spaniard: yes.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 6 months ago
*si