The upside-down or inverted question marks and exclamation points of Spanish are unique to the languages of Spain. But they make a lot of sense: When you're reading, you can tell long before the end of a sentence whether you're dealing with a question, something that isn't always obvious when the sentence doesn't start with an interrogative pronoun such as qué or cómo.
The important thing to remember when you're writing Spanish is that the inverted question mark (or exclamation) goes at the beginning part of the question (or exclamation), not at the beginning of the sentence if the two are different. See these examples:
- Pablo, ¿adónde vas? Pablo, where are you going?
- Quiero saber, ¿cuándo es tu cumpleaños? I want to know, when is your birthday?
- Estoy cansado, ¿y tú? I'm tired, are you?
- Sin embargo, ¡tengo frío! Nevertheless, I'm cold!
Note also that if parts of the sentence that aren't part of the question come after the question, the whole sentence is included within the question marks:
- ¿Adónde vas, Pablo? Where are you going, Pablo?
If a sentence is a question and an exclamation at the same time, it is possible to combine the question mark and exclamation points in the following ways. The Royal Spanish Academy prefers the usage in the third and fourth sentences:
- ¿Cómo lo hace! How does she do it?
- ¡Me quieres¡ You love me?
- ¡¿Qué viste?! What are you seeing?
- ¿¡Qué estás diciendo!? What are you saying?
