Comments on: exclamation mark or point?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:54:09 +0000

And why don’t they say question point I’ve never heard anyone say question point but it had a dot to?

By: Tina

Tina — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:07:17 +0000

The reason being is simply a case of language. exclamation mark is English and exclamation point is American. We use full stop and in Amercia it is either a point or period.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 13 Aug 2003 06:00:02 +0000

I tried to look it up in the OED but it required a subscription that I didn't want to pay, but this site seems to confirm that exclamation point originated in the US. I'm with the Brits on this one!

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 12 Aug 2003 23:35:22 +0000

Exclamation ‘mark’ is British English and exclamation ‘point’ is U.S. English. Look it up in the OED!!

By: dan

dan — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 13:22:26 +0000

Now what about quotation marks? They are essentially a period with a serif and yet they’re called marks. English punctuation is crazy.

By: George

George — Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:46:15 +0000

Question mark?! I’ve always called it a question point…..

By: dan

dan — Fri, 04 Jul 2003 09:32:36 +0000

SFT: You can promote our cause in the eastern US and I’ll take the west. Who’s got Europe?

Wendy: I think the question mark is the strongest argument so far but I may be able to think of a few more. I too have a hard time remembering what I used to call it, but not anymore. Besides, if I forget, I have this post to remind me.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 03 Jul 2003 21:07:52 +0000

I applaud your radical decision to go ahead and call it a mark, especially since the question mark has already laid the groundwork. Maybe though, the official thinking is that the vertical line signals an exclamation that goes above the point required to end a sentence. But then why doesn’t the question mark work that way? (What if it was called the Exclamation Period? Yuck.)

You know, after reading this post, I can’t remember which way I usually say !. I guess I’m suffering from the same sort of phenomenon that happens when you know you’ve spelled a word correctly but it just doesn’t look right on the page.

By: SFT

SFT — Wed, 02 Jul 2003 08:53:21 +0000

Hey, a fellow grammar Nazi, all right!

Yeah I’ve always used "exclamation mark," and I always get looked at a bit funny for it. I’m from Arkansas, what can I say?

SFT

By: dan

dan — Wed, 02 Jul 2003 06:33:41 +0000

I haven’t a clue how often I use the phrase, but it’s the principle of the thing you see.

For some odd reason I’m reminded of a fig newton commercial. A boy is eating in bed and his mother tells him he knows he’s not supposed to eat cookies in bed. In a rich English accent, he replies, “It’s not a cookie mother, it’s a fig newton.”

It’s not a point Arrancia, it’s an exclamation mark.