ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Inverted question and exclamation marks

Okay, imagine you want to ask a question or express excitement in Spanish. But unlike in English, you have to let everyone know right away by using a special mark. For questions, you use an upside-down question mark at the beginning of the sentence, and for excitement, you use an upside-down exclamation mark. So if you want to ask "What is your name?" in Spanish, you would write "¿Cómo te llamas?" Notice the upside-down question mark at the beginning. It tells everyone that a question is coming up. Similarly, if you want to say "I'm so happy!" in Spanish, you would write "¡Estoy tan feliz!" with an upside-down exclamation mark at the beginning. This lets everyone know you are expressing excitement. Hope that helps!
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