Upside-Down Question Mark (¿): How to Type, Use, and Copy It

The upside-down question mark ¿ opens a question in Spanish. Where English asks with a single mark at the end, Spanish brackets the whole question: an inverted ¿ at the start and an ordinary ? at the close, as in ¿Cómo estás?. It has a matching partner for exclamations, ¡, and a few simple rules about where it goes. Here is how to type ¿, when to use it, how it compares to the regular question mark, and plenty of examples.

In a hurry?

• Copy it: click ¿ in the grid below.
• Windows: hold Alt and type 0191 for ¿ (Alt + 168 also works).
• Mac: press Option + Shift + ? for ¿ (Option + 1 for ¡).
• On a phone: press and hold the ? key and slide to ¿.
• In HTML the inverted question mark is ¿; in a URL it is %C2%BF.

In short: ¿ opens a Spanish question and the ordinary ? closes it. Its exclamation partner ¡ works the same way. The sections below cover exactly when and how to use them.

Upside-down question mark: every code in one table

The inverted question mark next to its exclamation partner, with the code for each. Copy from the grid above, or use whichever method fits the app you are in.

Method	¿ (inverted ?)	¡ (inverted !)
Name	Inverted question mark	Inverted exclamation mark
Unicode	U+00BF	U+00A1
Windows Alt code	Alt + 0191	Alt + 0161
Mac	Option + Shift + ?	Option + 1
Word (code + Alt+X)	00BF	00A1
HTML	¿	¡
URL / percent	%C2%BF	%C2%A1

The inverted question mark has two working Windows Alt codes: Alt + 0191 (with the leading zero) and the shorter Alt + 168 from the old code page. Both give ¿. On a Mac, Option + Shift + ? is the one to remember.

How to type the upside-down question mark on any device

On Windows

Hold Alt and type 0191 on the numeric keypad for ¿ (keep the leading zero; Num Lock on). The shorter Alt + 168 works too. In Word, 00BF then Alt + X gives ¿. No keypad? Copy it from the grid or open Character Map.

On Mac

Press Option + Shift + ? and you get ¿ right away. The exclamation partner is easier still: Option + 1 gives ¡. Both work in any app without switching keyboards.

On iPhone and Android

Press and hold the ? key on the on-screen keyboard, and a small popup offers ¿; slide to it and lift your finger. Holding the ! key does the same for ¡. Adding a Spanish keyboard also puts both within easy reach.

On a Spanish keyboard

A physical Spanish (QWERTY) keyboard has a dedicated key for it, usually to the right of the ‘ and ¡ keys near Enter. Switching your layout to Spanish is the most comfortable option if you write in Spanish often.

In Microsoft Word

Type 00BF then press Alt + X for ¿, or use Insert → Symbol. If your document language is set to Spanish, Word’s proofing will also flag a question that is missing its opening ¿.

On Linux

Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 00bf, then Enter for ¿. With a Compose key, Compose ? ? also produces the inverted question mark, and Compose ! ! the inverted exclamation.

In HTML and CSS

In HTML, use the named entity ¿ or the numeric ¿ for ¿ (the exclamation is ¡). In a CSS content value, use \00BF. Set the page to UTF-8 (or at least Latin-1) so the mark holds.

When to use the upside-down question mark

The rule is simpler than it looks: in Spanish, every direct question gets an inverted ¿ at its start and a normal ? at its end. Here is when and where it goes.

• To open any direct question: ¿Cómo estás? (“How are you?”). The ¿ and ? always come as a pair.
• At the start of the question part, not always the sentence: if a question follows a name or lead-in, the ¿ goes right before the question begins — María, ¿vienes con nosotros?
• Only around the question: in a longer sentence, invert just the interrogative clause — Si puedes, ¿me llamas luego?
• With exclamations, use its partner: exclamatory sentences take ¡ … ! the same way — ¡Qué sorpresa!
• In standard written Spanish, both marks are required — the opening one is not optional in formal writing, even though English has no equivalent.

Upside-down question mark vs regular question mark

They are two halves of the same job in Spanish. The difference is where each one sits and which languages use them.

	Inverted ¿	Regular ?
Unicode	U+00BF	U+003F
Position	opens the question	closes the question
Direction	points down / reversed	points up / normal
Used in English	no	yes
Used in Spanish	yes (to open)	yes (to close)
Example	¿Qué…	…hora es?

So English uses only the closing ?, while Spanish frames the question with both: ¿ to open and ? to close. They are different characters (U+00BF and U+003F), not the same mark flipped by the app.

Upside-down question mark examples

A few real sentences, showing where the marks fall.

Spanish	English
¿Cómo te llamas?	What is your name?
¿Qué hora es?	What time is it?
Oye, ¿tienes un momento?	Hey, do you have a moment?
No sé, ¿tú qué opinas?	I don’t know, what do you think?
¡Feliz cumpleaños!	Happy birthday!
¡Qué bien! ¿Vamos ya?	Great! Shall we go now?

Notice the last one: an exclamation and a question sit side by side, each with its own opening mark. The inverted mark always hugs the start of its own clause.

The inverted exclamation mark ¡: the exclamation partner

The question mark does not work alone. Spanish exclamations get the same treatment from ¡ (U+00A1), the inverted exclamation mark: it opens the exclamatory clause and a normal ! closes it — ¡Hola!, ¡Qué rico!, ¡Cuidado!. Everything that applies to ¿ applies to ¡: it hugs the start of its own clause, it is required in standard writing, and on a Mac it is the easy Option + 1. If you are learning the pair, learn them together.

Do you need the opening ¿? The rule versus real life

In standard Spanish, yes — the Real Academia Española treats the opening ¿ as required, not decorative, and leaving it out is considered an error in formal writing. In real life, casual Spanish online tells a different story: in texts, chats, and social posts, many native speakers drop the opening mark and write just Como estas? because the closing ? already signals the question and it is faster to type. So the honest answer is: keep both marks in anything formal — essays, emails, print — and know that dropping the opener is common but non-standard in casual messaging.

Where the ¿ came from: the Real Academia Española, 1754

The inverted marks are surprisingly recent and deliberately designed. The Real Academia Española introduced them in the second edition of its orthography in 1754, after noting that in long sentences a question mark only at the end came too late — the reader had already started with the wrong intonation. Putting an inverted mark at the front fixes that: you see a question coming from the very first word. The exclamation mark got the same treatment at the same time. It is one of the few punctuation marks with a clear inventor and date.

Which languages use the upside-down question mark?

Mostly just Spanish. It is standard in Spanish everywhere it is written, and also appears in a few languages with close ties to it, such as Galician and Asturian. Catalan officially dropped it, and it was never part of Portuguese, Italian, or French, which open questions with no special mark. So if you are reading text with a ¿ at the front, it is almost certainly Spanish — a quick way to recognize the language at a glance.

Which mark? Inverted question, question, inverted exclamation, exclamation

The four punctuation marks in the family, with what each one does.

Mark	Name	Unicode	Where it fits
¿	Inverted question mark	U+00BF	opens a Spanish question
?	Question mark	U+003F	closes a question (all languages)
¡	Inverted exclamation mark	U+00A1	opens a Spanish exclamation
!	Exclamation mark	U+0021	closes an exclamation
‽	Interrobang	U+203D	combined ? and ! (informal)

Upside-down question mark in URLs and encoding

In a link, ¿ is percent-encoded as %C2%BF — two UTF-8 bytes, since it lives in the Latin-1 range. If it shows up as ¿ or a box, the bytes are being read in the wrong encoding. Because ¿ is a Latin-1 character, it survives more old systems than higher symbols do, but UTF-8 is still the safe choice; set the file, database, and page to UTF-8 and it displays correctly.

Copy-paste HTML codes

The inverted marks and their partners with web codes, in one place. Copy the code you need.

Mark	Named entity	Numeric entity	URL (percent) code
¿	¿	¿	%C2%BF
¡	¡	¡	%C2%A1
?	(none)	?	%3F
!	(none)	!	%21

In a CSS content value, use \00BF for the inverted question mark. For every other symbol and its codes, see the copy and paste symbols tool and the how to type Spanish letters guide.

Troubleshooting

My ¿ shows as ¿ or a box

That is an encoding mismatch — the UTF-8 bytes for ¿ are being read as an older encoding. Set the file, database, and page charset to UTF-8 and ¿ displays correctly.

Alt + 0191 gives the wrong character

Usually a missing leading zero or Num Lock being off. Use 0191 (with the zero) on the numeric keypad, or the shorter Alt + 168. In Word, type 00BF then Alt + X.

Only the closing ? appears, not the opening ¿

Some apps and phone autocorrect add only the closing mark. Type or copy the opening ¿ yourself at the start of the question, or add a Spanish keyboard so both are available.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the upside-down question mark ¿?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 0191 (or 168) on the numeric keypad. On a Mac, press Option + Shift + ?. On a phone, press and hold the ? key. In HTML it is ¿. Or copy it from the grid above.

When do you use the upside-down question mark?

In Spanish, at the start of every direct question, paired with a normal ? at the end: ¿Cómo estás?. It goes right before the question begins, which may be mid-sentence.

What is the difference between ¿ and ?

¿ (U+00BF) opens a question in Spanish; ? (U+003F) closes it. English uses only the closing ?, while Spanish uses both. They are separate characters, not one mark flipped.

Do I have to use the opening ¿ in Spanish?

In formal, standard Spanish, yes — it is required. In casual texting and social media, many people drop it and rely on the closing ?, but that is considered non-standard in careful writing.

How do I write the upside-down question mark in HTML?

Use the named entity ¿ or the numeric ¿. In a CSS content value it is \00BF, and in a URL it is %C2%BF.