punctuation space before 'question mark' and 'exclamation point' in your language too?

[Joan in GE]

It was only about 2 months ago that I started noticing in some French texts that there was a space at the end of the sentence before question marks and before exclamation points. I look at other French writing and see that it's been there all along and I hadn't noticed. :huh:

 

Is this common in other languages as well?

 

It does set off the punctuation in a way that helps the reader notice. But having grown up with 'no space', I'm used to 'no space'....

 

Joan

[Laura Corin]

In Chinese there tends to be a space before punctuation marks. Each character has its own notional square space into which all the elements are fitted. When there's a punctuation mark, it tends to be put into the middle of that character space. Here's an example.

 

For any Chinese readers - I hope the content is okay. I skimmed it and nothing rude jumped out.

 

Laura

[Arcadia]

Chinese do have a space before punctuation marks. Chinese is written on a square grid paper and the punctuation marks get their own squares. When writing on blank paper, we tend to still keep a slight space between the word and punctuation.

 

I did not notice any space in the German children's storybooks.

 

Nope, in Dutch you put punctuation right behind a word, but we never use a comma before the word 'and', and that became our most common mistake due to reading too much English.....

 

 

I have never used comma before "and" until we came to the states.

[Joan in GE]

When there's a punctuation mark, it tends to be put into the middle of that character space. Here's an example.

 

That's a very clear example :-)

 

Chinese is written on a square grid paper and the punctuation marks get their own squares.

 

I did not notice any space in the German children's storybooks.

 

I have never used comma before "and" until we came to the states.

 

 

Your first comment explains why Laura's example looks so 'boxy' :-)

 

 

but we never use a comma before the word 'and',

 

Who would have guessed it's so uncommon - well at least in Dutch? I wonder about other languages...

 

Joan

[regentrude]

German: no space before punctuation.

Comma before "and" was mandatory when two independent clauses were joined by and; with the new spelling rules, this comma is now optional.

In lists, there is never a comma before and (i.e., no Oxford comma)

[Mabelen]

Oh my! I totally forgot about that peculiarity in French! I used to work at a multilingual localization agency many years ago when I learned about that.

 

No space in Spanish.

[Joan in GE]

German: no space before punctuation.

Comma before "and" was mandatory when two independent clauses were joined by and; with the new spelling rules, this comma is now optional.

In lists, there is never a comma before and (i.e., no Oxford comma)

 

Thanks for the update...

 

Oh my! I totally forgot about that peculiarity in French! I used to work at a multilingual localization agency many years ago when I learned about that.

 

No space in Spanish.

 

So when you say it is a peculiarity in French and you worked in a multilingual setting, that means that you haven't seen it in other languages as well, besides English and Spanish?

 

Thanks,

Joan

[mom2bee]

I have never noticed a space between punctuation and words in Spanish.

[aggieamy]

There is one older person I know that uses spaces before punctuation in English but I'm sure he's a fluke and is doing it inappropriately. In face he does lots of writing things that are a bit off and it's distracting when reading his emails.

[Joan in GE]

There is one older person I know that uses spaces before punctuation in English but I'm sure he's a fluke and is doing it inappropriately. In face he does lots of writing things that are a bit off and it's distracting when reading his emails.

 

Interesting that you note it's distracting...Since I'm writing in French and English, I've found I'm sometimes putting the space in my English writing now...Would your older friend have ever written in French?

 

Joan

[aggieamy]

 

Interesting that you note it's distracting...Since I'm writing in French and English, I've found I'm sometimes putting the space in my English writing now...Would your older friend have ever written in French?

 

Joan

 

I'm going to ask him next time I see him because with this guy anything is a possibility. He's had a very long and interesting life.

[stripe]

Weird, I never noticed that in French. How about Japanese, where you don't normally put a space between words?

http://www.tofugu.com/2011/12/08/japanese-punctuation/

[Joan in GE]

Weird, I never noticed that in French. How about Japanese, where you don't normally put a space between words?

http://www.tofugu.co...se-punctuation/

 

 

I'm sure glad we use spaces in English....I wonder about the effect on the brain of such different ways of reading.......Joan

 

PS Any news Amy?

[Arcadia]

I'm sure glad we use spaces in English....I wonder about the effect on the brain of such different ways of reading.......Joan

 

 

Japanese, Korean and Chinese are all written on square grid paper except for calligraphy. So the space between words is kind of redundant. Hieroglyphic, Pali and Sanskrit also does not have space between words.

 

My guess is that pictorial based languages does not have spaces between words. The grids are already imprinted in the mind's eye.

[stripe]

Japanese, Korean and Chinese are all written on square grid paper except for calligraphy.

I don't think it's necessary for them to be on square grid paper to be comprehensible without spaces. It's entirely possible to write on a blank piece of paper and still be understood, in other words; one writes characters of a consistent size sort of as if the grid is there, though.

 

It looks to me that Thai doesn't use spaces, either, but I don't actually know anything about the language.