why do some people put a space before a question mark or exclamation point?

Comments

• psoul@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It is the orthographic norm for some languages, i.e. the only correct way to spell.

  French is like that. Any double punctuation symbol gets a space beforehand.

  Ah bon ? Mais il faut pourtant beau aujourd’hui !

  Écoute ça : Thomas entre dans le magasin ; il en ressort avec, entre autre, un cadeau.

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    that makes sense, it’s why i wonder if most people who do that are french speakers

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    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Many probably are, I don’t know about “most”. There are plenty of people who just don’t know proper typography without that having this kind of explanation.

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  • Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I think the point virgule depends if you’re from France or Québec. I learned it with no space before it and seems this table confirms that. This similar one from a Quebec source seems to be saying you can do either.

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• Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Maybe for the same reason so many people do not capitalize the first word in their sentences.

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  • lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    i do this when writing in a hurry on my phone

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• starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  And some people dodn’t use a space at all!They type like this.Argh.

  Or they use commas instead of full shops for ellipses,

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    oh my gosh, i’ve seen that!!

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    • cheers_queers@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I have fought the urge to do that many times. For me, it feels a bit softer than the ellipses. But i try to restrain myself lol

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• J52@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Stylistic choice to make it more visible (in most cases).

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  • mediOchre@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Stylistic choice to make it more visible ( in most cases ) .

    FTFY

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• AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It was the standard printed style in the US and UK from the 1860s until the early 20th century, gradually phasing out by the 1950s.

  For printers with variable spaces, it was more usual to use a thin space before the punctuation and an em space after.

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• daggermoon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  English isn’t their first language usually

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• FelixCress@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Good question, does anyone know ?

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  • 6nk06@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Smartphone keyboards are multilingual now. I can set it to French and autocorrect in English. But if there’s a bug, it may be confused I guess.

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    • FelixCress@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Uhm !

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    • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      mine autocorrects to german sometimes

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• lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  i do this when the word(s) before the punctuation should be easy to copy+paste, like “did you install figlet ?” so they don’t accidentally get the qyestikn mark into the copied text

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• cmeio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The rules of where to make spaces variate in different languages, so maybe some people do as they learned in their native language.

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    ahhh

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• Acamon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  For me, it’s that my keyboard sometimes autocorrects to French.

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    ohhh

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• 6nk06@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Not stylistic, it’s the language.

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I don’t mean french, i mean in english

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• MrJameGumb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I have never seen anyone put a space before a question mark! I’m curious to find out now too lol

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• brokenlcd@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The reason i sometimes do it is because my brain sees a typed word as ending with a space in principle. Even if it the only word i’m typing. I doubt i managed to make sense, but anyways.

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  • jaiden@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    i think i get it, thanks!

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• sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I only do it when my thumb accidentally hits spacebar instead of the period button right next to it, and I don’t care enough to go back and fix it.

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