B2 · Fine points and style
Punctuation and spelling
Almost nothing takes a capital letter.
At a glance
- Remember
- No capital on a language, a day or a month — and none on a nationality either.
- Form
- Creo que tienes razón.no comma before que
- Signal words
- ¿
- ¡
- —
- ñ
- ü
- Trap
- Wrong:El Lunes tengo clase de Español.Right:El lunes tengo clase de español.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Spanish.
negation question marker
| no comma before que | Creo que tienes razón. |
| comma round an aside | Mi hermana, que vive en Roma, viene. |
| lower case | español, lunes, enero, alemán |
| two marks | ¿Vienes? / ¡Qué bien! |
| direct speech | —No quiero —dijo ella. |
| decimal comma | 3,5 kg — 10 000 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
There is no comma before que.
Espero que todo vaya bien.I hope everything goes well.
Languages, days and months are written small.
El lunes tengo clase de español.On Monday I have a Spanish class.
A question or exclamation takes two marks.
¡Qué bien que hayas venido!How lovely that you came!
A fronted subordinate clause takes a comma.
Cuando llegues, avísame.When you arrive, let me know.
Example sentences
Creo que el martes es festivo.I think Tuesday is a public holiday.
Hablo alemán, inglés y un poco de francés.I speak German, English and a little French.
¿Sabes si abren en agosto?Do you know whether they open in August?
El señor Martín llega el viernes.Mr Martín arrives on Friday.
6 more example sentences
Sé que llegarás tarde.I know you will be late.
Nací en marzo de 1990.I was born in March 1990.
¿Cuánto cuesta? ¡Qué caro!How much is it? How expensive!
Estudio francés los martes y los jueves.I study French on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
La doctora Ruiz nos atendió.Doctor Ruiz saw us.
Compramos pan, leche, huevos y fruta.We bought bread, milk, eggs and fruit.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The capital letters travel across: Hablo Español y Alemán, El Lunes tengo clase. In Spanish all of those are ordinary words. The only capitals are the first letter of a sentence and proper names — and a country is a proper name (España) while its language and its people are not (español).
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The rule an English writer breaks on the first line is capitalisation. English capitalises languages (English), nationalities (German), days (Monday), months (January), religions and titles (Mr García). Spanish capitalises none of them: español, alemán, lunes, enero, el señor García. Capitals are for the start of a sentence and for proper names, and that is all.
There is no comma before que: Sé que vienes. English agrees here — «I know that you are coming» takes no comma either — so this is one rule that needs no unlearning. A comma goes where there is a pause: in lists, around parentheses, after a fronted subordinate clause.
Two things look strange and are quickly learnt. A question or an exclamation carries two marks, the opening one upside down: ¿Vienes? ¡Qué bien! And direct speech uses dashes rather than quotation marks: —No quiero —dijo ella—. Es tarde. Numbers take a decimal comma: 3,5 kg. Thousands are often marked with a full stop (1.000), but current spelling rules prefer a space (10 000) and no mark at all in four-digit numbers (2500).
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The verbs on this page, in every form: llegar · ser · tener · haber · ir · venir · hablar · saber