should there be space between a sentence and question mark or not? [duplicate]

In written English (mainly online) I often come across sentences ending with a question or an exclamation mark with a space before it. Is it always just an error or a typo? Or there are cases when it is a correct English, for example after closing parentheses or some other punctuation marks?

Solution 1:

In English, it is always an error. There should be no space between a sentence and its ending punctuation, whether that's a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. There should also be no space before a colon, semicolon, or comma. The only ending punctuation mark that sometimes needs to be preceded by a space is a dash.

I see this error most often with people who never really learned to type. In handwriting, spacing is more, um, negotiable and subject to interpretation.

Solution 2:

People have mentioned in the comments that, yes, in the past, a small (non-breaking) space was inserted before an ! and a ? These must never start a new line. The space is also a small space, very clearly much more than the space between letters of a word, but much less than a sentence-ending space.

See, for example, this:

And:

From an 1899 edition of Ralph T. H. Griffith's The Texts of The White Yajurveda. (Link)

This is by no means current practice, as Marthaª's answer explains and I suppose the answer to the question 'is it ever correct ...' is no. But was it ever correct? Yes, very much so.

Solution 3:

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends a nonbreakable space before and after an ellipsis when the intention is to trail off a sentence.

13.52 Ellipses with other punctuation. Placement of the other punctuation depends on whether the omission precedes or follows the mark; when the omission precedes it, a nonbreakable space should be used between the ellipsis and the mark of punctuation to prevent the mark from continuing over to the beginning of a new line.

This is a specific instance, and Chicago is one of two accepted style guides for (most) American publishing.

"You stop right there! When I get a hold of you, I'll ... !"

"Do you want to, you know ... ?"

There is so much to love about fudge ... . [I feel the ellipsis before a period is the weakest example because it's arguable whether the ellipsis should come before or after the period, if at all.]

A nonbreakable space is still a space.