Yeah, a caret is also using in mathematics to indicate the next number is an exponent for the previous number(s), whereas a circumflex is used for French and other languages, commonly where an S used to be in a word i.e. hôpital
The three least-guessed answers: interrobang, dagger, and guillemet. I've also studied Spanish and don't recall ever seeing a guillemet before. Daggers I have seen used as markers for footnotes similar to asterisks or superscript numbers, just didn't know what they were called. Interrobang I had never heard of nor seen before.
I actually use the interrobang all the time in SMSs and emails - though, I've had to create shortcuts for them, because they're not ordinary punctuation.
Dagger I just knew, don't know why. But, guillemet I only knew because I speak French. No idea they were used in English also.
Dagger is nearly as common as bullet, (no pun intented hah, only just notice it..) or asterisks, both the interpunction itself as the word for it. But I have never heard of the word guillemets either though I know the interpunction itself. And never seen or heard of interrobang either.
And I had never heard of ellipsis. I have no idea what the term in my own language is either (I tried dotdotdog gahah)
I feel like the interobang is a really useful one. I'm a little disappointed that it isn't used more widely. There are so many situations where I use "!?" why not just put them together?
Here's an interesting punctuation map of how various languages/countries of Europe use quotations. There are little variations --- like spacing. Knowing them can be handy shortcut to identify where someone's from.
You may want to consider allowing interpunct for bullet. I know they're distinct symbols, but the only real difference between them is size, and it's kind of hard to tell which one it is without context.
They are called dot points more often than bullets, although dot point can also refer to the information that follows a bullet. Both are commonly understood. No idiocy involved.
I didn't know the word "guillemet", though I have certainly seen them in foreign-language novels, used a bit like we use quotation marks. Speech is often indicated by a new line of text, preceded by the guillemet.
I just learned that pressing the windows key and tapping the period calls up a box of symbols and other things like emojis! Who knew? But I'm no longer limited to my keyboard!
I got it after a moment, but there's also something called the 'interpunct' that looks very similar to a bullet, and is more of a punctuation mark than a bullet is.
It's used in Catalan to distinguish between ll (which sounds like "LY" as in million) and l·l (which sounds like double "L"). The word for collection, col·leció, has an interpunct.
Also, only in the United States and possibly Canada is { a brace. In the UK and Australia it's called a curly bracket.
Yes--I put "at" because that's all I know it as, but I'm sure people saw things like the ampersand (which many people only know as the "and sign"), and then assumed @ had a much more complicated name than "at sign." Like, I'm still kinda convinced it probably does.
Aha look at you second person who talked. By the third person who talked you just got ambiguity-fyed by him. Talk about Ambiguty, you stink at propaganda if u play.
Pilcrows are used to show where new paragraphs start, interrobang is basically the same as when you use ?! (to show disbelief or shock), dagger is used in disclaimers, headers, footnotes, etc., and guillemets are used as quotation marks in other languages, mainly French.
I forgot bullet... I've used the caret before, but I had no idea what it was called. Come to think of it, I've used all of these before (except the dagger... and interrobang because it's not on my keyboard and my friends would just think I'm pretentious lol)
I tried cout() for gullernet but it didn't work. As for bullet, they are not necessarily round. I don't see how that can qualify. It merely depends on the limitations of the software and in html you can format bulleted lists to be graphics, so they can be anything you want really.
You're too influenced by programming, whereas these are textual punctuation marks (note that "!" isn't also called bang here, "." isn't dot, "~" isn't worm, "*" would probably be asterisk and not star, etc.).
A guillemet («), which you might also know as angle quotes, isn't the same as the C++ insertion operator (<<).
This quiz is about and the name of the marks, not their meaning ("¶" isn't "new paragraph", for example). So even if the semantics of the insertion operator were synonymous with cout(), it wouldn't be the correct answer.
cout() also isn't the meaning of the insertion operator; the operator can be applied to other streams or objects. I don't know enough about C++ to know if cout() can be invoked directly, like that, without an operator or method, but either way a bunch of other classes implement <<
QM, can you add about or approximate for ~? Technically it's only a tilde if it's over a letter (I think?), which that symbol doesn't do when you type it out. Even if it is still a tilde, it's also used to say that a number you've put is approximate, not definite.
I learned this in school - I learned it as the / in an and/or situation. I'm probably the only one but I put virgule first before I put slash :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_(punctuation)
Although 'slash' is commonly used in the UK these days (mainly in the giving out of email addresses) I continue to prefer to use oblique, as 'slash' is UK English slang for urinate (as in "I need a slash"). I believe 'Solidus' is a more formal term that can also be employed.
Those of us who can remember dictation as an activity in French classes might remember "Ouvrez les guillemets" as an instruction the teacher gives when asking students to open speech marks.
It's not really standard usage. But if we are going to coin a new word for it, I prefer strudel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign
"The fact that there is no single word in English for the symbol has prompted some writers to use the French arobase[3] or Spanish and Portuguese arroba, or to coin new words such as asperand,[4] ampersat[5] and strudel,[6] but none of these has achieved wide usage."
I kind of feel like I shouldn't have gotten a couple because I know that a bracket and a brace are different but I still typed bracket. Also I misspelled ellipsis.
The Hyphen could also be an "em dash" or possibly an "en dash"? One is longer than the other and I can't remember which. I'm sure someone in internet-land will put me right!
Good quiz, I like it when I learn stuff as well as showing off what I know!
the em dash is longer! I remember because you can think of the dash being the length of that letter, so an en dash is as long as "n" and em dash is as long as "m" :-)
Good quiz, thank you, though (being picky here, sorry!) I don't believe they all actually qualify as punctuation. Some (the tilde) are diacritical marks dealing with pronunciation and others are editing marks. But fun nonetheless!
I know what an interrobang is, but I have to say that the symbol you have (at least in the font that my browser uses) doesn't look like an interrobang to me.
This is extremely hard english not being my native tongue! In other quizzes it is only a slight problem but here it was tough, you usually don't come across these terms, atleast not written.
I mznaged to squeeze out 18 but dont ask me how.. period took me 4 tries! Point, dot, and misspelling... I ve never been sure about the spelling of comma in english. Question mark was really the only I entered without a shred of a doubt creeping up (wether it be spelling or if it was the official term for it or not.)
happily surprised to see paragraph work for pilcrow, really didnt think it would.
ow and it might be an obscure one for some (atleast here) but I knew ampersand for certain aswell :)
It's about the name of the mark, not its meaning. As an editor, you wouldn't tell your author "You should write out the word and here instead of using an et."
When I was a copy editor before widespread use of computers a forward slash was always called a virgule. According to Dictionary.com, “ Virgule definition, a short oblique stroke (/) between two words . . .”
Dagger I just knew, don't know why. But, guillemet I only knew because I speak French. No idea they were used in English also.
And I had never heard of ellipsis. I have no idea what the term in my own language is either (I tried dotdotdog gahah)
I'm not sure about outside of Europe tho
generally known as that in australia
Also, only in the United States and possibly Canada is { a brace. In the UK and Australia it's called a curly bracket.
It is monkey (tail) in sooo many languages though, much more than I had realised. (Not surprised at the germanic ones, but slavic ones, even kyrgyz)
You're too influenced by programming, whereas these are textual punctuation marks (note that "!" isn't also called bang here, "." isn't dot, "~" isn't worm, "*" would probably be asterisk and not star, etc.).
A guillemet («), which you might also know as angle quotes, isn't the same as the C++ insertion operator (<<).
This quiz is about and the name of the marks, not their meaning ("¶" isn't "new paragraph", for example). So even if the semantics of the insertion operator were synonymous with cout(), it wouldn't be the correct answer.
cout() also isn't the meaning of the insertion operator; the operator can be applied to other streams or objects. I don't know enough about C++ to know if cout() can be invoked directly, like that, without an operator or method, but either way a bunch of other classes implement <<
Those of us who can remember dictation as an activity in French classes might remember "Ouvrez les guillemets" as an instruction the teacher gives when asking students to open speech marks.
It's not really standard usage. But if we are going to coin a new word for it, I prefer strudel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign
"The fact that there is no single word in English for the symbol has prompted some writers to use the French arobase[3] or Spanish and Portuguese arroba, or to coin new words such as asperand,[4] ampersat[5] and strudel,[6] but none of these has achieved wide usage."
Good quiz, I like it when I learn stuff as well as showing off what I know!
I mznaged to squeeze out 18 but dont ask me how.. period took me 4 tries! Point, dot, and misspelling... I ve never been sure about the spelling of comma in english. Question mark was really the only I entered without a shred of a doubt creeping up (wether it be spelling or if it was the official term for it or not.)
happily surprised to see paragraph work for pilcrow, really didnt think it would.
ow and it might be an obscure one for some (atleast here) but I knew ampersand for certain aswell :)
In Unicode, the "Guillemet" (U+00AB) is called simply "LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK", but usually "double angle quote" is good enough.
I guess it makes more sense why they use it for extinct species now :p
on August 18th, 2023 I learned what a guillemet was