• jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    In Spanish questions are phrased the same way as affirmations, when you are speaking the only difference is the intonation. Without a mark to say you are starting to read a question it’s possible that the meaning changes in the end which would be annoying. (Source: Portuguese is the same but has no inverted question mark, and sometimes it’s mighty annoying, especially with long questions)

    • octoperson@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Portuguese is the same but has no inverted question mark, and sometimes it’s mighty annoying,

      ¿What if you just used them anyway?
      ¡Problem solved!

    • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      É de facto irritante. Nada como estar na escola e um prof pede para ler. Estás calmamente a ler o texto e de repente tens de forçar a porcaria da entoação para sobrecompensar o facto de que não reparaste que era uma pergunta

      • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Not really. In my language subject and verb get switched around in a question. So you immediately know it’s a question when you start reading the sentence.

          • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            I know you already got it but a few others came to my mind:

            Finnish, which not a tonal language:

            • Sinä pidät kahvista. (“You like coffee.”)
            • Pidätkö kahvista? (“You like coffee?”)

            Japanese:

            • Anata wa kōhī ga sukidesu. (“You like coffee.”)
            • Kōhī wa sukidesu ka? (“You like coffee?”)

            I think you’ll find the pattern of question words/suffixes in nearly every language that is not explicitly tonal.

            • Anamana@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Yeah that’s initially why I thought there was no difference to Spanish. But the difference is Spanish actually doesn’t have an option where you switch subject and verb. Didn’t know that :)