Why Not End That Sentence With an Interrobang?!

Periods, exclamation points, question marks, apostrophes … You know those. I mean its a little hard to write a story without a period.

But what about some of the lesser known punctuation marks? Punction marks that were created with the intention to help make our writing even more clear.

Some of these are so uncommon and have since become long forgotten (or never really took off to begin with), you won’t even find them on your keyboard.

Interrobang ?!

A combination between a question mark and an exclamation point, the interrobang is used to express a question that contains excitement. It's used to convey pure wonder and incredibility.

Ex. Your cat did what?!

The funny thing about this punctuation mark is that you've probably used it and not even realized it. I've been using it before I even knew it was a thing.

Snark mark .~

Here’s a fun one! A period followed by a tilde, this punctuation mark is used to convey sarcasm and irony that might otherwise be missed. It’s to cleverly emphasize the fact that a statement is pure sarcasm because we all know some sarcasm can go right over some heads ;-) .

Ex. Cleaning up all of that mess is going to be so much fun.~

Love point ⸮?

You might want to add in a love point the next time you decide to write a love letter ;-)

These two mirrored question marks are supposed to resemble a heart and are used to cleverly emphasize love and affection.

Ex. It was wonderful talking to you again⸮?

Caret ^

While the caret isn’t really a punctuation mark but a typographical symbol, it’s easily the most recognizable out of the others on this list but still rarely used. You can usually find it by hitting the shift key + the 6 key above the keyboard.

Used in proofreading, it’s used to indicate an insert of a word or sentence.

Ex. I went the store today.

I went ^to the store today.

Certitude point

Turned off by ALL CAPS and the impression that as you read, IT'S LIKE SOMEONE IS YELLING AT YOU? Then you might favor the certitude point instead. This punctuation mark is used to convey total absolution to a question as in the answer is final!

It looks like an exclamation point with a hyphen across the top of it.

Ex. You are not having candy before bed [insert certitude point]

Asterism ⁂

A cluster of asterisk arranged into a triangle, the asterism is used to divide certain text such as passages or chapters. It's a clear indication where one text ends and another begins.

It hasn't really took off because we have other practical ways to clarify and divide text such as using spacing and subheadings.

Ex. Chapter 1

⁂

Chapter 2

Authority Point

This punctuation mark is used to show authority in a sentence and is meant to indicate when a reader should take a part of a writing seriously. It looks like an exclamation point with a upside down slight curve across it.

Ex. It's important to follow all steps precisely [insert authority point]

Guillemets << >>

While these are one of the very few uncommon punctuation marks / typographical symbols that be located on a keyboard (you can find them between the "m" and the question mark on a keyboard), they still aren't all that commonly used. It resembles a double less than sign followed by a double greater than sign.

Serving the same purpose as quotation marks used in the English language, guillemets are used in French and a number of other languages such as Greek, Italian, and Arabic. They have, however, become less common in some of these languages themselves.

While we're familiar with the question mark, the period, apostrophes, etc., there are plenty of other interesting and lesser known punctuation marks out there many of which have been long forgotten. And I think quite a few of these should be resurrected.

Sources

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12710/13-little-known-punctuation-marks-we-should-be-using

https://knowadays.com/blog/11-uncommon-punctuation-marks-and-how-to-use-them/