A. An inverted question mark is placed at the beginning of a sentence to indicate intonation:

• ¿Estás listo?
• Are you ready?

B. An inverted exclamation is placed before exclamations for the same reason:

• ¡Qué bien hablan!
• How well they speak!

C. An initial dash is usually used instead of quotations marks to indicate dialogue:

• -¿Vas o no vas?
• “Are you going or not?”
• -No, me quedo aquí.
• “No, I’m staying here.”

D. Spanish does not use capital letters in the following cases in which English does:

1. Days of the week:

• • • Hoy es viernes.
    • Today is Friday.

2. Months of the year:

• • • Mañana comienza abril.
    • April begins tomorrow.

3. Adjectives of nationality:

• • • Hugo es uruguayo.
    • Hugo is Uruguayan.

4. Names of languages:

• • • El húngaro no es fácil.
    • Hungarian is not easy.

5. Titles:

• • • El señor Sotomayor vino hoy.
    • Mr. Sotomayor came today.