Inverted question (¿) and exclamation (¡) marks are
punctuation marks used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences (or clauses), respectively, in written
Spanish and sometimes also in languages which have cultural ties with Spanish, such as in older standards of
Galician (now it is optional and not recommended),
Catalan or
Waray-Waray. They can also be combined in several ways to express the combination of a question and surprise or disbelief. The initial marks are normally mirrored at the end of the sentence or clause by the common marks (
?,
!) used in most other languages. Unlike the ending marks, which are printed along the
baseline of a sentence, the inverted marks (¿ and ¡) actually
descend below the line.
