Hi !
It’s true that a space before a question mark
is syntactically incorrect in English, but it is correct in
French, where any punctuation symbols made up of two parts,
such as the question mark and the colon, the latter being
two dots above each other, are always separated from the
last word of the sentence. I personally can’t think of any
languages where doubole question marks are the norm, but
even in English some people right multiple exclamation
marks.
Given what I wrote above about the French
standard for question marks, I don’t think NVDA should
automatically read a question mark if it is separate from
the last word of a question, as that may well annoy French
users of NVDA, or even multilingual users like me. So it’s
probably better that anyone who wants a separated question
mark to be spoken for proof-reading should either review the
ends of their questions character by character, or tweak
their punctuation settings somehow. That’s just my opinion:
I have no problems with questions in English, French or
German, the three languages I use myself.
Bye for now!
From Clare
Chris,
And what I'm telling you is that the first
version of the question does not read correctly, to my ears,
in either NVDA or Window-Eyes and the second two read
precisely the same way.
Since double exclamation points and double
question marks (and/or combinations thereof) are not uncommon
I have no issue with a screen reader reading these without any
extra string of punctuation.
I agree that a terminal space before the question
mark itself is syntactically incorrect and the words should be
read followed by "question mark" announcing the punctuation.
There is no case in written English that I know of where a
question mark can "free float" and be syntactically correct.
It is always firmly attached to the final word in a question
construction.
--
Brian
I worry a lot. . . I worry
that no matter how cynical you become it's never enough
to keep up.
~ Trudy, in Jane
Wagner's "Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the
Universe"
