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Irony punctuation facts for kids

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Irony punctuation
Punctuation
apostrophe   '
brackets [ ]  ( )  { }  ⟨ ⟩
colon :
comma ,  ،  
dash ‒  –  —  ―
ellipsis   ...  . . .      
exclamation mark  !
full stop, period .
guillemets ‹ ›  « »
hyphen
hyphen-minus -
question mark  ?
quotation marks ‘ ’  “ ”  ' '  " "
semicolon ;
slash, stroke, solidus /    
Word dividers
interpunct ·
space     
General typography
ampersand &
asterisk *
at sign @
backslash \
basis point
bullet
caret ^
dagger † ‡ ⹋
degree °
ditto mark ” 〃
equals sign =
inverted exclamation mark ¡
inverted question mark ¿
komejirushi, kome, reference mark
multiplication sign ×
number sign, pound, hash #
numero sign
obelus ÷
ordinal indicator º ª
percent, per mil  % ‰
pilcrow
plus, minus + −
plus-minus, minus-plus ± ∓
prime     
section sign §
tilde ~
underscore, understrike _
vertical bar, pipe, broken bar |    ¦
Intellectual property
copyright ©
copyleft 🄯
sound-recording copyright
registered trademark ®
service mark
trademark
Currency
currency sign ¤

؋ ​₳ ​ ฿¢ ​₢ ​ $ ​₯ ​֏ ​ ₠ ​ ​ ƒ ​ ​ ₴ ​ ​₾ ​ ​₱ ​₰ ​£ ​ 元 圆 圓 ​₽ ​₹ ₨ ​ ₪ ​ ​ ₩ ​ ¥ ​

Uncommon typography
asterism
fleuron, hedera
index, fist
interrobang
irony punctuation
lozenge
tie
Related
In other scripts
  • Chinese
  • Hebrew
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Category
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Irony punctuation is any proposed form of notation used to denote irony or sarcasm in text. Written English lacks a standard way to mark irony, and several forms of punctuation have been proposed. Among the oldest and most frequently attested is the percontation point proposed by English printer Henry Denham in the 1580s, and the irony mark, used by Marcellin Jobard and French poet Alcanter de Brahm during the 19th century. Both marks take the form of a reversed question mark, "⸮".

Irony punctuation is primarily used to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. A bracketed exclamation point or question mark as well as scare quotes are also sometimes used to express irony or sarcasm.

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