You’ve never heard of the interrobang?!
Inspired by a frequently used yet non-standard punctuation hybrid that’s crept into our everyday copy, one writer offers a few more additions and solicits your own.
I am referring to the interrobang, which I had never heard of until a friend recently told me about it. A “new social media icon” according to The Guardian, the interrobang is a non-standard punctuation mark—?! or !?—used at the end of a sentence that asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. For example:
• You won the lottery and you’ll never have to work again?!
• The IT department said “no” to your request for a bigger email in-box!?
• You haven’t submitted any expense reports since February!?
• You mean the executives purposefully set goals for us that we can’t attain?!
In the spirit of combining punctuation marks to create something new, how about putting together the period and the question mark. You could use these marks together to express doubt about a statement.
• Earth is only 6,000 years old.?
• Dinosaurs and people lived at the same time.?
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