Many people only know and use the most basic punctuation marks. These include the useful, but boring, commas, colons, periods, parentheses, quotation marks, question marks, and exclamation points. Many people are not even aware of a long list of official punctuation marks that can add a great deal of pizazz to anyone’s sentences. A brand new list of these unique punctuation marks is currently going viral. Hopefully this information will add a bit of zest, humor, and clarity to text messages and memos around the world.
A simple example of these interesting punctuation marks is the interrobang. You probably have used one of these before and never even knew it. Basically, an interrobang is a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. So, if you ever wrote something ending with “!?,” then you know what we mean. “?” is the official way to type an interrobang.
Many of these unique punctuation marks writers are considering and using today come from French author Hervé Bazin. Some of the marks Bazin invented include an irony mark to indicate an intent before reading a sentence, a certitude point for statements of commitment, an acclamation point for wishes of goodwill and welcome, a love point for affectionate occasions, and an authority point for advice that should be considered seriously. Some other interesting marks include the sarcmark to indicate sarcasm, the snark mark to let a reader know the sentence shouldn’t be taken literally, and a perconation point to let the reader know the question just asked was rhetorical. Unfortunately, many of these marks are not on our keyboards just yet. However, that shouldn’t stop you from learning about them and spreading them in your texts to loved ones. Who knows, maybe one day these marks will get the attention they deserve.
