Spanish grammar: Punctuation

Part ofSpanishSpanish skills

Punctuation in Spanish is a little bit different to English.

Learn about punctuation in Spanish with Burt Bessington

Questions in Spanish

Questions in Spanish don’t just need a question mark at the end, they also need one at the beginning of the sentence.

The question mark at the beginning of the sentence must be upside down but the one at the end is just an ordinary question mark.

Here are some examples:

  • - What is your name?

  • - How old are you?

  • - How are you?

Accents in questions

Another thing to remember about questions is that there is an accent on the question word, such as 'who', 'what' and 'where', eg:

- What is your name?

Exclamations in Spanish

Any exclamation sentence in Spanish needs an upside down exclamation mark at the beginning and a normal exclamation mark at the end.

Here are some examples:

  • - Hello!

  • - I’m hungry!

  • - I’m fantastic!

Burt Bessington

Did you know?

Upside down question marks are a way of saying 'question coming up', because the word order for a question and a non-question are the same.

For example:

  • - You are eight years old

  • - Are you eight years old?

They also tell the speaker to change their intonation - this means that their voice should go up at the end of the question.

Burt Bessington
Back to top

Help this team of adventurers race their way to victory. Explore the globe in this exciting game update to discover new audio voiced by Ade Adepitan and fun animations. Challenge yourself with brand-new achievements and become a high-flyer!

Race Across the Continents game - new update!
Back to top

More on Spanish skills

Find out more by working through a topic