explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3143: Question Mark

2025-09-18T13:09:47Z

2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:713:DADE:CF5F:C3C7: /* Explanation */ the whole point of whitespace characters is the spacing

{{comic
| number = 3143
| date = September 17, 2025
| title = Question Mark
| image = question_mark_2x.png
| imagesize = 380x463px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...
}}

==Explanation==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=0d5bb3|image=Ambox warning blue construction.svg|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}| |
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
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|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it] exclamation mark!
}}
|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Category|
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please add more pages to this category!
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|{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]'''!
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!
}}
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}}}}

In colloquial English, the phrase "{{wiktionary|question_mark#Particle|question mark}}" is often{{acn}} added to the end of an interrogative sentence to emphasize its uncertainty, as if the question mark in a written representation of the utterance should be spoken aloud instead of remaining implicit in the {{w|Intonation (linguistics)#English|rising intonation}}. When [[Hairy]] uses it in this fashion, [[Cueball]] decides to do the same with other punctuation marks and even other matters of formatting like typographical emphasis and whitespace.

Cueball mentions the film ''{{w|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle}},'' illustrating the common use of italics to indicate titles of films (as well as other works, e.g. books, albums and series, depending on the stylebook used) and colons to separate subtitles from titles.

The title text reads: "Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot..." In the title text, Randall uses three different whitespace characters, specifically the three-per-em space (U+2004), the medium mathematical space (U+205F), and the hair space (U+200A), used for typesetting mathematical formulae and in {{w|microtypography}}. Translated, it looks like this:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Characters in title text
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my   speech..."
|-
! Ordinary whitespace
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my speech..."
|}

Pronouncing punctuation used to be a staple of dictation especially in the 20th century, when secretaries taking dictation to type letters were more commonplace. The expression "…, period" or "…, full stop", taken to mean "…and that's final", originates from this usage. Since Cueball is pronouncing all other punctuation marks as well, his final "period" denotes only the mark and not the common expression, especially since the latter would require a comma before and an "additional" period after.

==Transcript==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=04b60c|image=Ambox warning green construction.svg|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete transcripts|R}} incomplete transcripts]] colon{{#if:Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.|:''''' Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!|.''' Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!}}}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete transcripts]]}}}}

:[Hairy and Cueball are both walking to the right.]
:Hairy: That movie was so good. Maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark?
:Cueball: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics ''Charlie's Angels Colon: Full Throttle'' period. Paragraph break.
:Cueball: I question your judgment period.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:When people say "question mark" out loud as a rhetorical device, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Movies]]

3143: Question Mark

2025-09-18T13:01:08Z

2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:713:DADE:CF5F:C3C7: /* Transcript */ cleaned up transcript. Text-to-speech engines often pronounce punctuation anyway, so this would be especially frustrating to read for a blind person, whom this section is supposedly for.

{{comic
| number = 3143
| date = September 17, 2025
| title = Question Mark
| image = question_mark_2x.png
| imagesize = 380x463px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...
}}

==Explanation==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=0d5bb3|image=Ambox warning blue construction.svg|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}| |
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it] exclamation mark!
}}
|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Category|
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please add more pages to this category!
}}
|{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]'''!
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!
}}
}}
}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete explanations]]}}
}}}}

In colloquial English, the phrase "{{wiktionary|question_mark#Particle|question mark}}" is often{{acn}} added to the end of an interrogative sentence to emphasize its uncertainty, as if the question mark in a written representation of the utterance should be spoken aloud instead of remaining implicit in the {{w|Intonation (linguistics)#English|rising intonation}}. When [[Hairy]] uses it in this fashion, [[Cueball]] decides to do the same with other punctuation marks and even other matters of formatting like typographical emphasis and whitespace.

Cueball mentions the film ''{{w|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle}},'' illustrating the common use of italics to indicate titles of films (as well as other works, e.g. books, albums and series, depending on the stylebook used) and colons to separate subtitles from titles.

The title text reads: "Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot..." In the title text, Randall uses three different non-spacing characters, specifically the three-per-em space (U+2004), the medium mathematical space (U+205F), and the hair space (U+200A). Translated, it looks like this:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Characters in title text
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my   speech..."
|-
! Ordinary whitespace
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my speech..."
|}

Pronouncing punctuation used to be a staple of dictation especially in the 20th century, when secretaries taking dictation to type letters were more commonplace. The expression "…, period" or "…, full stop", taken to mean "…and that's final", originates from this usage. Since Cueball is pronouncing all other punctuation marks as well, his final "period" denotes only the mark and not the common expression, especially since the latter would require a comma before and an "additional" period after.

==Transcript==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=04b60c|image=Ambox warning green construction.svg|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete transcripts|R}} incomplete transcripts]] colon{{#if:Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.|:''''' Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!|.''' Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!}}}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete transcripts]]}}}}

:[Hairy and Cueball are both walking to the right.]
:Hairy: That movie was so good. Maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark?
:Cueball: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics ''Charlie's Angels Colon: Full Throttle'' period. Paragraph break.
:Cueball: I question your judgment period.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:When people say "question mark" out loud as a rhetorical device, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Movies]]

3143: Question Mark

2025-09-18T12:52:14Z

2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:713:DADE:CF5F:C3C7: /* Explanation */ quotation marks

{{comic
| number = 3143
| date = September 17, 2025
| title = Question Mark
| image = question_mark_2x.png
| imagesize = 380x463px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...
}}

==Explanation==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=0d5bb3|image=Ambox warning blue construction.svg|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}| |
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it] exclamation mark!
}}
|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Category|
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please add more pages to this category!
}}
|{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]'''!
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!
}}
}}
}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete explanations]]}}
}}}}

In colloquial English, the phrase "{{wiktionary|question_mark#Particle|question mark}}" is often{{acn}} added to the end of an interrogative sentence to emphasize its uncertainty, as if the question mark in a written representation of the utterance should be spoken aloud instead of remaining implicit in the {{w|Intonation (linguistics)#English|rising intonation}}. When [[Hairy]] uses it in this fashion, [[Cueball]] decides to do the same with other punctuation marks and even other matters of formatting like typographical emphasis and whitespace.

Cueball mentions the film ''{{w|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle}},'' illustrating the common use of italics to indicate titles of films (as well as other works, e.g. books, albums and series, depending on the stylebook used) and colons to separate subtitles from titles.

The title text reads: "Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot..." In the title text, Randall uses three different non-spacing characters, specifically the three-per-em space (U+2004), the medium mathematical space (U+205F), and the hair space (U+200A). Translated, it looks like this:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Characters in title text
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my   speech..."
|-
! Ordinary whitespace
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my speech..."
|}

Pronouncing punctuation used to be a staple of dictation especially in the 20th century, when secretaries taking dictation to type letters were more commonplace. The expression "…, period" or "…, full stop", taken to mean "…and that's final", originates from this usage. Since Cueball is pronouncing all other punctuation marks as well, his final "period" denotes only the mark and not the common expression, especially since the latter would require a comma before and an "additional" period after.

==Transcript==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=04b60c|image=Ambox warning green construction.svg|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete transcripts|R}} incomplete transcripts]] colon{{#if:Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.|:''''' Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!|.''' Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!}}}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete transcripts]]}}}}

:Open bracket [Hairy and Cueball are both walking to the right period. Close bracket]. Paragraph break.
:Hairy: That movie was so good. Maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark?
:Cueball colon: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics ''Charlie's Angels Colon: Full Throttle'' period. Paragraph break.
:Cueball colon: I question your judgment period.
:Open bracket [Caption below the panel colon: Close bracket]. Paragraph break.
:When people say open quote "question mark close quote" out loud as a rhetorical device comma, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too period. Paragraph break.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Movies]]

3143: Question Mark

2025-09-18T12:50:53Z

2A02:AB88:7815:7E80:713:DADE:CF5F:C3C7: /* Explanation */ rendered example, cleaned up paragraphs before and after

{{comic
| number = 3143
| date = September 17, 2025
| title = Question Mark
| image = question_mark_2x.png
| imagesize = 380x463px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...
}}

==Explanation==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=0d5bb3|image=Ambox warning blue construction.svg|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}| |
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!
|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete explanations|R}} incomplete explanations]] colon:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it] exclamation mark!
}}
|{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Category|
{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This category is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please add more pages to this category!
}}
|{{#if:This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' This page was created by a BOT TIRONIAN ET ⹒ MULTIPLE HUMANS PERIOD. Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]'''!
|'''''This is [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|incomplete]]:''''' ''Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!
}}
}}
}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete explanations]]}}
}}}}

In colloquial English, the phrase "{{wiktionary|question_mark#Particle|question mark}}" is often{{acn}} added to the end of an interrogative sentence to emphasize its uncertainty, as if the question mark in a written representation of the utterance should be spoken aloud instead of remaining implicit in the {{w|Intonation (linguistics)#English|rising intonation}}. When [[Hairy]] uses it in this fashion, [[Cueball]] decides to do the same with other punctuation marks and even other matters of formatting like typographical emphasis and whitespace.

Cueball mentions the film ''{{w|Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle}},'' illustrating the common use of italics to indicate titles of films (as well as other works, e.g. books, albums and series, depending on the stylebook used) and colons to separate subtitles from titles.

The title text reads: "Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot..." In the title text, Randall uses three different non-spacing characters, specifically the three-per-em space (U+2004), the medium mathematical space (U+205F), and the hair space (U+200A). Translated, it looks like this:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Characters in title text
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my   speech..."
|-
! Ordinary whitespace
| "Although now people will realize that all this time I’ve been using weird whitespace characters in my speech..."
|}

Pronouncing punctuation used to be a staple of dictation especially in the 20th century, when secretaries taking dictation to type letters were more commonplace. The expression ''…, period'' or ''…, full stop'', taken to mean "…and that's final", originates from this usage. Since Cueball is pronouncing all other punctuation marks as well, his final "period" denotes only the mark and not the common expression, especially since the latter would require a comma before and an "additional" period after.

==Transcript==
{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Main Page||{{notice|bcolor=04b60c|image=Ambox warning green construction.svg|'''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|{{PAGESINCAT:Incomplete transcripts|R}} incomplete transcripts]] colon{{#if:Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period.|:''''' Don apostrophe 't remove this notice too soon period. If you can fix this issue comma, '''[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} edit the page]''' exclamation mark!|.''' Please help by [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} editing it]!}}}}{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|Template||[[Category:Incomplete transcripts]]}}}}

:Open bracket [Hairy and Cueball are both walking to the right period. Close bracket]. Paragraph break.
:Hairy: That movie was so good. Maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark?
:Cueball colon: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics ''Charlie's Angels Colon: Full Throttle'' period. Paragraph break.
:Cueball colon: I question your judgment period.
:Open bracket [Caption below the panel colon: Close bracket]. Paragraph break.
:When people say open quote "question mark close quote" out loud as a rhetorical device comma, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too period. Paragraph break.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Movies]]