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To space or not to space Thread poster: Heinrich Pesch
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Heinrich Pesch 
Finland
Local time: 22:06
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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This is a minor issue, but I would like to get someones opinion.
Nowadays I often recieve texts, where the exclamation mark has a leading space:
Always observe the security instructions !
Till now I always wrote my translations without this space, but am I too fussy? Sure the additional space serves its purpose, especially with some fonts. Should I start using it?
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 13:06
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | Never seen it | Jul 9, 2004 |
I have never seen it, but to me it seems incorrect to leave a space there.
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| Spaces before exclamation marks | Jul 9, 2004 |
Dear Heinrich,
No, in English there should not be a space. Certain languages, however, do put a space before the marks (France?). I receive documents from Belgium that have them (in front of "!" and ":"). I always remove them.
Good luck!
Marijke
[Edited at 2004-07-09 06:39]
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avsie (X)
Local time: 21:06
English to French
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| In French, yes! | Jul 9, 2004 |
And to be exact, in France-French
In French-Canada, where I'm from, we do not put a space before the exclamation mark or the colon, to name a few.
As for Belgian or Swiss-French rules, I would think they are the same as the one for France.
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Pee Eff (X)
Germany
Local time: 21:06
English to German
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Hi,
I've seen this too and it's true that this is normal in French. In written French the exclamation mark, question mark, colon and sometimes even the quotation marks are separated by a space. I don't either know if this is a general rule in French.
When I see these things in English texts, sometimes this may be an indication that the text was translated by a French native speaker (or by an English native speaker who has spend a lot of time in a French speaking environ... See more Hi,
I've seen this too and it's true that this is normal in French. In written French the exclamation mark, question mark, colon and sometimes even the quotation marks are separated by a space. I don't either know if this is a general rule in French.
When I see these things in English texts, sometimes this may be an indication that the text was translated by a French native speaker (or by an English native speaker who has spend a lot of time in a French speaking environment, okay...)
Patrick ▲ Collapse
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| In English I'd leave out the space | Jul 9, 2004 |
I've often seen extra spaces in German - within brackets (at the beginning and end of the bracket) and before colons. When translating the text into English, I always take out the spaces.
Good luck!
Sarah
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Joanne Parker
Local time: 20:06
Member (2002)
German to English
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| Never in correct English! | Jul 9, 2004 |
You never have a space before an exclamation mark, or question mark for that matter, in English. You are perfectly correct not to insert a space between the word and the exclamation mark!
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Klaus Herrmann
Germany
Local time: 21:06
Member (2002)
English to German
+ ...
| No spaces in German | Jul 9, 2004 |
Sarah Downing wrote:
I've often seen extra spaces in German - within brackets (at the beginning and end of the bracket) and before colons. When translating the text into English, I always take out the spaces.
Sarah
You can take them out in German as well if you'd like to spoil your client
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| No Spaces in German ... | Jul 9, 2004 |
Hi Klaus,
I always found that the extra spaces in German looked rather strange, but assumed it was some kind of grammatical rule, as they were so specifically placed. I don't actually translate into German as it isn't my native language, but thanks for the info - you learn something new every day:-)
ATB,
Sarah
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| The problem is due to the adaptation of typographical rules to computers. | Jul 9, 2004 |
In traditional typography, there should be a 'hair space' before :,:? and !, as well as inside quotes, but, for some reason, computer fonts don't allow you to do that. In some languages - French for instance - a full space is inserted instead before those symbols, but in English it is not. The trouble is that if you did, the line breaks and spellcheck would be affected, and therefore you cannot do it, even if it looks better. In French, I insert a 'non-breaking' space (Ctrl+Shift+Space in Word) ... See more In traditional typography, there should be a 'hair space' before :,:? and !, as well as inside quotes, but, for some reason, computer fonts don't allow you to do that. In some languages - French for instance - a full space is inserted instead before those symbols, but in English it is not. The trouble is that if you did, the line breaks and spellcheck would be affected, and therefore you cannot do it, even if it looks better. In French, I insert a 'non-breaking' space (Ctrl+Shift+Space in Word) to prevent these symbols from being separated and end up orphaned at the start of a line.
In typography, the rule, or the art, is that the spacing should be as even as possible - visually. If you have an eye for style, you might want to select fonts that do not jam the punctuation marks against the letters. ▲ Collapse
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| Sometimes, it serves a purpose | Jul 9, 2004 |
Some operators use space before every punctuation mark ( . , ; :, etc.) not because it is a rule, but because they think that there is such a rule.
and sometimes, some "smart" translators (and I have personal experience, believe me!) use it intentionally!
Because such marks are counted as words in MS Word. For example "Behold!" is counted as 1 word in MS Word. But "Behold !" is counted as 2 words.
... See more Some operators use space before every punctuation mark ( . , ; :, etc.) not because it is a rule, but because they think that there is such a rule.
and sometimes, some "smart" translators (and I have personal experience, believe me!) use it intentionally!
Because such marks are counted as words in MS Word. For example "Behold!" is counted as 1 word in MS Word. But "Behold !" is counted as 2 words.
Try and see ! !
▲ Collapse
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 22:06
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
As I usually get paid by character this does not make much difference, but I didn't expect wordcount would be effected.
Somehow this habit seems to spread, these isolated exclamation mark come to me from different customers (in technical manuals) in German and English.
I cannot think of any other reason than clarity, especially when using Arial-like fonts.
But I'll stick to my habit of removing the spaces.
Thank you all for your postings!
Heinrich
<... See more As I usually get paid by character this does not make much difference, but I didn't expect wordcount would be effected.
Somehow this habit seems to spread, these isolated exclamation mark come to me from different customers (in technical manuals) in German and English.
I cannot think of any other reason than clarity, especially when using Arial-like fonts.
But I'll stick to my habit of removing the spaces.
Thank you all for your postings!
Heinrich
[Edited at 2004-07-09 11:11] ▲ Collapse
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| Dear Heinrich, | Jul 9, 2004 |
Definitely no spaces in English. I see it too and always remove them. As a matter of fact, you are right, I often do see them in technical translations. I did not know though that there are spaces in French and have learned something this morning.
Happy translating!
Lucinda
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| French habit and rule | Jul 9, 2004 |
Hello
I'm guilty! I used to put a space before my marks in French, Spanish and English until somebody told me that it showed that I wasn't native in Spanish if I did that. That was a harsh lesson, I started immediately correcting, but when you have the habit it's hard.
It's true that some spelling softwares will put that space automatically, but they also should recognize the language and put it only in French.
I'm surprised by Marie-Claude's comments becau... See more Hello
I'm guilty! I used to put a space before my marks in French, Spanish and English until somebody told me that it showed that I wasn't native in Spanish if I did that. That was a harsh lesson, I started immediately correcting, but when you have the habit it's hard.
It's true that some spelling softwares will put that space automatically, but they also should recognize the language and put it only in French.
I'm surprised by Marie-Claude's comments because I study in a Canadian University and this rule is also followed there.
Claudia ▲ Collapse
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Rosa Maria Duenas Rios (X)
Local time: 15:06
| Spaces also used in Canadian French | Jul 9, 2004 |
Claudia Iglesias wrote:
I'm surprised by Marie-Claude's comments because I study in a Canadian University and this rule is also followed there.
Claudia
Claudia, you just took the word off my mouth. I was going to point out exactly the same thing (I studied at the Universite de Montreal).
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