Question for non-native English speakers

[Speedo]

Hopefully the title makes sense. I've been awake for going on 36 hours now, and the 'ol brain isn't entirely coherent - it's the best I can come up with.

Something that I've noticed often noticed from people to whom English is a secondary language do, is place a space before ending punctuation marks.
Eg:
"That was cool !"
"What do you mean ?"

Though I can't recall seeing it done with a period (.). I'm trying figure out... why? I know it's not part of normal English grammar itself, at least as I've ever seen, so I'm guessing it's a carryover from your primary language. The only other language I've really learned any amount of is French (3 wasted semesters of high school), but I don't *remember* ever seeing it there, plus I've seen it from people of various nationalities. I can remember seeing it for sure from friends in online games and such who were Swedish, Greek, German, Dutch, French and Romanian, at the least.

So what's the deal?

 

[Till]

It's not part of German grammar.
My best guess is that the gaming situation is to blame. In online shooters, my grammar and spelling are among the first casualties...
I have no recollection of ever putting additional spaces before punctuation marks, however. Even when under heavy enemy fire.

 

[nonconformist]

I can safely say this is not a French grammatical quirk.

 

[CartesianFart]

Hey speedo.Rules of grammar varies in all places in the English speaking world,so it would not be surprising to see that non-native English speakers have their unique way of doing things.

Not all men have the same writing or grammar if the writing is not formal.Same as speech being formal in some settings and not in settings that is not formal.

 

[El_Machinae]

In fact, some insist on doing it, even when told that it's annoying and causes their posts to be ignored.

 

[Mise]

I know a few English people who do this; they simply think it looks better to have a space before the question mark/exclamation mark...

 

[GenMarshall]

Different languages have different grammar syntaxes. Hebrew has a different grammar syntax, Japanese has a different grammar syntax, even Latin has a different grammar syntax.

 

[Mise]

Incidentally, it was once proper etiquette to put a double-space after a full stop. Like this.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's parsed out by the stupid script...

 

[CartesianFart]

I know a few English people who do this; they simply think it looks better to have a space before the question mark/exclamation mark...

So.Maybe it is their preference to do so for inorder to create an idiosyncratic style.Tell me,is this place in CIV OT a formal place or an informal place for formal or informal writing?

 

[Mise]

So.Maybe it is their preference to do so for inorder to create an idiosyncratic style.Tell me,is this place in CIV OT a formal place or an informal place for formal or informal writing?

I don't know, but I think that things always look better when the conform to a standard, whatever that standard is. Non-standard stuff confuses me...

It's like when people put apostrophes between an acronym and the "s" after it, if the acronym is plural. For example, "I saw 5 BMW's yesterday", as opposed to the correct "I saw 5 BMWs yesterday".

 

[GenMarshall]

Tell me,is this place in CIV OT a formal place or an informal place for formal or informal writing?

I realy cant tell since I use quasi-formal writing in English and polite form in Japanese. Now this begs the question if Latin has any formality that Japanese have (Plain, Polite, Formal) .

 

[El_Machinae]

Incidentally, it was once proper etiquette to put a double-space after a full stop. Like this.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's parsed out by the stupid script...

I didn't notice. My thumb still double-taps after every sentence.

 

[nonconformist]

It's like when people put apostrophes between an acronym and the "s" after it, if the acronym is plural. For example, "I saw 5 BMW's yesterday", as opposed to the correct "I saw 5 BMWs yesterday".

People who do that should be shot, as should peopel who can't differ between "your" and "you're".

 

[CartesianFart]

I don't know, but I think that things always look better when the conform to a standard, whatever that standard is. Non-standard stuff confuses me...

Take a reading of any philosophical literature and surely you will be confused of the non-standard stuff but someway be enlighten by reading it.Quite a therapeutic effect if you ask me.

It's like when people put apostrophes between an acronym and the "s" after it, if the acronym is plural. For example, "I saw 5 BMW's yesterday", as opposed to the correct "I saw 5 BMWs yesterday".

But it still make sense to you,does it?

Lets say this for an example:

1."I saw 5 BMW yesterday."
2."I saw 5 BMW's yesterday."
3."I saw 5 BMWs yesterday."

All of them make sense to me as being the same.

 

[Mise]

But it still make sense to you,does it?

Yeah, it makes sense, and I'm not particularly anal about it. I just prefer it when everything's standardised. That way I don't have to make sense out of it

 

[Tomoyo]

Now this begs the question if Latin has any formality that Japanese have (Plain, Polite, Formal) .

Not to the degree that Japanese does. There's a way to write/speak in Latin such that you come across as very proper and formal (like Eutropius' history books -- they are written as history book usually are -- dry, formal, and without any slang or informalities), but there wouldn't be a different verb form that you would use to come across as more formal.

 

[HypnosTene]

So what's the deal?

I've always wondered why people use '??' at the end of their questions. I'd say that it's probably just caused by poor typing skills, just like the thing you mentioned.

 

[Masquerouge]

I can safely say this is not a French grammatical quirk.

Yes, yes it is a French thing, but it has nothing to do with grammar.
In French punctuation marks with two elements (! ? ; : ) require a space before and after it. Punctuation marks with one element (, .) require no space before it but one after.

Punctuation rules differ from country to country, and a lot of them are reminiscent of typewriters. With a typewriter you put two spaces after a dot, but now with a computer you just type one space and the computer automatically adjust it to the proper size. Magic!
. L
L
As you can see in the first case the space between the . and the L is much larger than in the second case where I just hit space-L.
That's what you learn working for a newspaper

 

[civverguy]

你好吗？There is a small space at the end of a sentence in Chinese. I never noticed it before though. I guess it is a part of Chinese grammar.

 

[Tomoyo]

I don't think there's really a small space, I think it's just that, like a character, the punctuation occupies one whole "box".