{"id":10303,"date":"2022-01-14T13:44:42","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T13:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/?p=10303"},"modified":"2022-01-17T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T09:21:30","slug":"the-english-and-spanish-punctuation-similarities-and-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/the-english-and-spanish-punctuation-similarities-and-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"The English and Spanish punctuation. Similarities and differences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The use of punctuation marks\u00a0<strong>has to some extent rules<\/strong> that are the product of the editorial traditions of each language and culture, although there is always the possibility of introducing the editor&#8217;s preferences. Punctuation structures the text makes it easier to understand, dispel doubts, and also marks pauses for oral reading.<\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"margin-bottom: 2rem; margin-top: 2rem; background: #F4F4F4;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #fff; background: #FF6868;\">\u00cdNDICE DE CONTENIDOS<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#to\">To begin with, the protagonists<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#full\">Full stop<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#ellipses\">Ellipses<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#colon\">Colon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#semicolon\">Semicolon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comma\">Comma<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>From the perspective of translation, writing the target text also requires knowing how to rate it according to the rules of the target language.\u00a0Therefore,\u00a0<strong>we suggest you review these conventions in English and Spanish<\/strong>\u00a0, to check how they are similar and how they differ.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"to\">To begin with, the protagonists<\/h2>\n<table width=\"664\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Full stop<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>.<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Punto<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Period<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>.<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Punto (American English)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Ellipses<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>\u2026<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Puntos suspensivos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Colon<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>:<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Dos puntos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Semicolon<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>;<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Punto y coma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Comma<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Coma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Question mark<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>?<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Signo de interrogaci\u00f3n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Exclamation mark<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>!<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Signo de exclamaci\u00f3n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Dash<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>\u2013<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Gui\u00f3n largo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Underscore<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>_<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Gui\u00f3n bajo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Quotation marks<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">\u00ab \u00bb<\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Comillas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Parenthesis<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>( )<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Par\u00e9ntesis<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Brackets<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>[ ]<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Corchetes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"alt\">\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Braces \/ curly brackets<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">{ }<\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Corchetes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\"><strong>Asterisk<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">*<\/td>\n<td width=\"149\">Asterisco<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Obviously, if we want to study their similarities and also their differences in a detailed way we have to take the English punctuation as a reference.<\/p>\n<h2>Full stop<\/h2>\n<p>In the same way as in Spanish, final sentence mark: <em>I went to Paris last week<\/em>. (Fui a Par\u00eds la semana pasada)\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>it is not placed at the end of an exclamatory or interrogative sentence<\/strong>\u00a0.\u00a0It is also used after an abbreviated word (Jackson and Co.) but not if the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as in the full version: Ltd = limited (SA);\u00a0Mr = mister (Mr.).<\/p>\n<p>However, in charts (especially in British English), it is very common for the point to be completely omitted (USA).\u00a0And it is never used in abbreviations that are pronounced as words: NATO (NATO).<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"ellipses\">Ellipses<\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>three dots go to the end of a word<\/strong> and mean that what you want to say continues on the next line or it is not finished, it is suspended.\u00a0Exactly the same as in Spanish.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"colon\">Colon<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The main use of a colon is in listing a list. <\/strong>For example: We saw all of Paris&#8217;s attractions: the Eiffel tower, the Champs Elys\u00e9s, the Louvre.\u00a0They are also used before an\u00a0<strong>explanation<\/strong>\u00a0: We can&#8217;t stay here any longer: the money has run out.\u00a0And finally, they\u00a0<strong>introduce a quote<\/strong>\u00a0, something someone has said: In the words of Marco Polo: &#8216;The man who travels alone travels furthest.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Be careful<\/strong>\u00a0though\u00a0, don&#8217;t use the colon in an English letter after the heading as in a Spanish letter.\u00a0In English the comma is put, which is something that is beginning to be used in our language as well.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"semicolon\">Semicolon<\/h2>\n<p>The semicolon\u00a0<strong>is used to separate two clauses<\/strong>\u00a0, two ideas, as if they were two different sentences;\u00a0however, the second idea refers to, or qualifies, the previous idea: Some people work best at night;\u00a0others prefer working in the morning.\u00a0\/ It&#8217;s a good plan;\u00a0let&#8217;s hope it works out.\u00a0(Some people work better at night; others prefer to work in the morning. \/ It&#8217;s a good plan; let&#8217;s hope it works.)<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the semicolon is\u00a0<strong>also used to separate items in a list within a sentence<\/strong>\u00a0;\u00a0but these elements are usually small phrases and not single words: We\u2019ve got a lot to do today: take the car to the garage; clean the house; take the dog for a walk and loads of other things. (Tenemos mucho que hacer hoy: llevar el coche al garaje; limpiar la casa; llevar al perro a pasear y muchas otras cosas).<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"comma\">Comma<\/h2>\n<p>It always appears\u00a0<strong>after words like<\/strong> &#8216;however&#8217; (sin embargo) and &#8216;so&#8217; (as\u00ed que), especially when they are placed at the beginning of the sentence, although they can also appear at the end and in the middle of a sentence: We ran back to the road; the car had gone, however. We didn\u2019t, therefore, have any other option. (Corrimos de regreso a la carretera; sin embargo, el coche se hab\u00eda ido. Por lo tanto, no ten\u00edamos otra opci\u00f3n).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Commas are<\/strong>\u00a0also\u00a0<strong>used within a sentence<\/strong>\u00a0to avoid the need to write many small sentences;\u00a0and they turn a long sentence into something more understandable and stylistically more attractive.\u00a0In this sense it coincides with Spanish.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of repeating \u201cand\u201d between a series of elements in a sentence,\u00a0<strong>we use commas with the exception of the last two elements that are divided by \u201cand\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0: In the park there were trees, bushes, flowers and a lovely statue.\u00a0However, in American English they also separate the penultimate element of the conjunction that precedes the last with a comma: We bought apples, pears, bananas, and oranges.\u00a0But this in Spanish would be a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>In any case,\u00a0<strong>in English &#8220;and&#8221; is used if there are two elements<\/strong>\u00a0that belong to the same group of qualities;\u00a0ex.\u00a0colors: Blue and white flowers. (flores azules y blancas); but: A dirty, old man. (Un hombre sucio y viejo.)<\/p>\n<p>Finally,\u00a0<strong>the comma is essential to avoid an ambiguous meaning<\/strong>\u00a0.\u00a0Let&#8217;s take this phrase as an example: Charles, Prince of England, took a plane to New York. (Carlos, Pr\u00edncipe de Inglaterra, cogi\u00f3 el avi\u00f3n para Nueva York.)\u00a0It is understood here that we are talking about Prince Charles.\u00a0But here: Charles Prince of England took a plane to New York. (Carlos Pr\u00edncipe de Inglaterra cogi\u00f3 un avi\u00f3n para Nueva York);\u00a0we may be talking about a certain\u00a0Prince Charles.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"kk-star-ratings kksr-auto kksr-align-left kksr-valign-bottom\"\n    data-payload='{&quot;align&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;10303&quot;,&quot;slug&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;valign&quot;:&quot;bottom&quot;,&quot;ignore&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;reference&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;count&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;legendonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;readonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;score&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;starsonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;best&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;gap&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;greet&quot;:&quot;\u00a1D\u00e9janos unas estrellitas si te ha gustado el post!&quot;,&quot;legend&quot;:&quot;5\\\/5 - (1 vote)&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;24&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The English and Spanish punctuation. Similarities and differences&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:&quot;138&quot;,&quot;_legend&quot;:&quot;{score}\\\/{best} - ({count} {votes})&quot;,&quot;font_factor&quot;:&quot;1.25&quot;}'>\n            \n<div class=\"kksr-stars\">\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-inactive\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"1\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"2\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"3\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"4\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"5\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-active\" style=\"width: 138px;\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n                \n\n<div class=\"kksr-legend\" style=\"font-size: 19.2px;\">\n            5\/5 - (1 vote)    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The use of punctuation marks\u00a0has to some extent rules that are the product of the editorial traditions of each language&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2637,"featured_media":9873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8073,8080,8108,8075,8084],"tags":[8223,8077,8216],"class_list":["post-10303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-a1-levels","category-level-a2-levels","category-grammar","category-learn-english","category-learn-spanish","tag-grammar","tag-learn-english","tag-learn-spanish","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13235,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303\/revisions\/13235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elblogdeidiomas.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}