mariaklec

Why is it that so many Spanish-speakers don't use punctuation when they write? This seems to be true even of educated people.

Veronica

Hi mariaklec!! I think it depends where you are writing. In forums and blogs I think people want to give the text and informal tone, or they just don't care enough to make the text easily readable. But in newspapers, schools, at work, etc. I think people continue to write properly.

Let's see what the rest of the users thinks!

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mmm...papas fritas.

El Detective

I agree with Veronica. I get informal e-mails form friends and family in Spanish that is often missing proper punctuation but more formal messages (often from the same people) are never sent without punctuation.

I suspect this may be strongly influenced by internet and cell phone text messaging.

Joel

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"El verdadero objectivo de la vida no es el destino final, si no disfrutar el camino."

mariaklec

I teach English to Spanish speakers, mostly from Mexico and Central America, and have been doing so for years. Most of my students, even those with relatively high educational levels, balk at the notion of using punctuation. This observation predates the common use of cell phones and computers, especially among my students who even now generally cannot afford computers. I know that level of education is part of it, and usually attribute it to that, but some of my students have been college students from Mexico, but still wrote without punctuation unless I really pressed them to use it. And even text messagers will put a dash here or there so things don't get too confusing.

In my class I write sentences like this on the board:

Maria was in the kitchen eating the children
were playing in the living room

Then I can show them how, with the miracle of capital letters and punctuation, Maria changes from a cannibal to a good mother.

I also found this in a Mexican textbook:

Cesar entro sobre la cabeza
llevaba el casco en los pies
las sandalia en la mano
la fiel espada desenvainada

which means quite different things if you punctuate in the middle of each line instead of at the ends of the lines.

I'd love to hear from a person who knows how to use punctuation but prefers not to.

Loretta

I know I have had this problem. A close friend of mine doesn't speak English, and we send texts to each other a lot. It makes it hard to understand what she is trying to say sometimes, because without punctuation, I am not sure where her sentences start and end. The only way I have to translate in online translation, so I have to assume and try different things. I want to learn more spanish, but do not know where to begin.

exxcéntrica

Yes, I agree, so many people don't even know how to use the correct punctuation any more.

In Spanish we do not use the comma after the introduction, for example, and you will find few posts with this :

Hola Pedro: ¿Por qué.......

The colon is mandatory.

I also find it extremely difficult to read when certain accents are not used.

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“Los hombres son superiores a las mujeres porque Alá les otorgó la primacia sobre ellas. Portanto, dió a los varones el doble de lo que dió a las mujeres. Los maridos que sufrieran desobediencia de sus mujeres pueden castigarlas: abandonarlas en sus lechos, e incluso golpearlas.
No se legó al hombre mayor calamidad que la mujer."

El Corán (libro sagrado de los musulmanes, recitado por Alá a Maomé en el siglo VI)