Question-Mark-Question

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/endpunct.html

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-punctuation.htm - french, not english

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm - two spaces for typewriters

[Linus Van Pelt]

Wow, I've never heard of putting a space there, despite speaking French pretty well and also having taken German for a few years in school (which doesn't, of course, entail speaking it well ). Learn something new every day.

In Canada French uses the no-space pattern (as does English in all non-American countries also).

[angus]

I have seen a lot of questions asked on this Forum and it looks like Americans are using the question mark without a space, while almost everyone else uses a space in between.

As you can see, I use a space of course.

When I was in high school, we were taught to put all punctuation marks--comma, semicolon, colon, period, question, exclamation, dash, virgule, etc.--immediately after the last letter, as I will do in this sentence to demonstrate.  We were taught to use two spaces after a colon, period, question mark, or exclamation mark, but only one space after a comma or semicolon, and no space after a dash, which can be realized using two hyphens if you don't have it on the keyboard.  I have noticed that the kids nowadays are putting only one space after periods. 

That's exactly how I was taught, two spaces after a period and such.

You were taught incorrectly. Punctuation comes directly after the end of the word, and there is only a single space between any punctuation mark of any sort, and the start of the next word.

Besides your post, and some website you present which isn't even from the United States, you don't have any evidence that he was taught incorrectly.  And frankly, I don't think he was taught incorrectly, and neither was I.  I'm not going to pull up a website, because I existed long before websites existed, and the rules for punctuation and formatting existed long before websites existed, although I know rules change.  I have mentioned in another thread that the kids are now pluralizing index as indexes, which seems bizarre to me.  I wouldn't call it incorrect, if that's what their teachers are teaching them, but I still do what my teachers taught me.  You might say I'm culturally conservative, but that's not the same as being incorrect.

[Хahar 🤔]

Double spacing after periods aids readability for monospace fonts, but since those are rarely used nowadays it isn't necessary or preferable.

[angus]

Double spacing after periods aids readability for monospace fonts, but since those are rarely used nowadays it isn't necessary or preferable.

Actually, there was always a debate, even in the dark ages, about the "readability."  I'm not taking a normative position one way or the other, just telling the rule.  These days, as far as I can tell, there is no rule, so in the absence of a current one, I refer to the last established ones, which in all cases put a question mark immediately after a letter, and two spaces after it.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

In English, it is incorrect to put a space before a question mark.

Really ?

How's that ?

It's a rule of the English language. In French, for instance, you must put a space before the question mark. In English, you must not.

It's not a rule of the language. It's an orthographical convention.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I never use a space after a colon or a question mark.  I always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence.  It really bothers me, for example, that the iPad only inserts one space after a period if you double tap the space bar at the end of the last word in the sentence.

I find putting a space in front of a question mark silly, but I do kind of like how in German you use an exclamation point when giving a command.

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying; mostly because I end up getting used to it and then start doing it in English as well.  I also never know when to use semicolons.

[angus]

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying

Apparently it was that way in English at one time, or something like it.  I've been reading lots of Charles Dickens lately, mostly to become more literate and not look like such a dork when I hang out with humanities types.  My wife works at a much smaller school and when we go to their parties it's not all science geeks, and I don't even know the difference between a Cubist and a Dadist--much less whether I should even capitalize those terms--so I've been broadening my horizons.  Anyway, lots of common nouns in English works from circa 1800 to 1870 were capitalized.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I never use a space after a colon or a question mark.  I always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence.  It really bothers me, for example, that the iPad only inserts one space after a period if you double tap the space bar at the end of the last word in the sentence.

I find putting a space in front of a question mark silly, but I do kind of like how in German you use an exclamation point when giving a command.

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying; mostly because I end up getting used to it and then start doing it in English as well.  I also never know when to use semicolons.

Double spacing really creeps me out.

[Tender Branson]

I never use a space after a colon or a question mark.  I always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence.  It really bothers me, for example, that the iPad only inserts one space after a period if you double tap the space bar at the end of the last word in the sentence.

I find putting a space in front of a question mark silly, but I do kind of like how in German you use an exclamation point when giving a command.

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying; mostly because I end up getting used to it and then start doing it in English as well.  I also never know when to use semicolons.

Double spacing really creeps me out.

Antonio, just let us agree that all the others here are just WRONG and don't UNDERSTAND ...

[angus]

I never use a space after a colon or a question mark.  I always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence.  It really bothers me, for example, that the iPad only inserts one space after a period if you double tap the space bar at the end of the last word in the sentence.

I find putting a space in front of a question mark silly, but I do kind of like how in German you use an exclamation point when giving a command.

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying; mostly because I end up getting used to it and then start doing it in English as well.  I also never know when to use semicolons.

Double spacing really creeps me out.

Antonio, just let us agree that all the others here are just WRONG and don't UNDERSTAND ...

Perhaps, but we have at least established that it isn't an Americanism, or even an Anglophonic peculiarity, but rather a weirdness of french that you think is normal.  I actually already knew that the french put a space before the question mark, but I'd assumed that it was unusual among languages.  This thread seems to confirm that.  Well, fwiw, it's not the weirdest thing in the world.  You should see what the spanish do with question marks.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Question? (normal)

[Torie]

I knew they were a bit odd over there on the Continent, but I didn't know they were that odd.  Anyway I learned something I didn't know before. Thanks.

[dead0man]

People that get upset over sh**t like this have MUCH too easy of a life.  (or have a minor mental disorder...either way, I wouldn't brag about it on the internet)

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I never use a space after a colon or a question mark.  I always put two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence.  It really bothers me, for example, that the iPad only inserts one space after a period if you double tap the space bar at the end of the last word in the sentence.

I find putting a space in front of a question mark silly, but I do kind of like how in German you use an exclamation point when giving a command.

I do find capitalizing every noun to be a bit annoying; mostly because I end up getting used to it and then start doing it in English as well.  I also never know when to use semicolons.

Double spacing really creeps me out.

Antonio, just let us agree that all the others here are just WRONG and don't UNDERSTAND ...

Perhaps, but we have at least established that it isn't an Americanism, or even an Anglophonic peculiarity, but rather a weirdness of french that you think is normal.  I actually already knew that the french put a space before the question mark, but I'd assumed that it was unusual among languages.  This thread seems to confirm that.  Well, fwiw, it's not the weirdest thing in the world.  You should see what the spanish do with question marks.

¿que?

-edit
actually I prefer this in a logical sense as it lets you know when the question begins.

[angus]

actually I prefer this in a logical sense

¡yo también!