Do You Put A Space Before And After?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

, , , ,

As a general rule, in English

there is no space before and one space after a punctuation mark

.

Do you add a space after an ellipsis?

Spacing. Whether you put spaces between the dots or not is a matter of style. … The AP Stylebook says to treat the ellipsis as a three-letter word, with spaces on either side of the ellipsis but

no spaces between the dots

. You can use either style; just be consistent throughout your document.

Do you add a space after?

When a slash signifies alternatives between only two words,

don’t use spaces before

or after. When using slashes to signify alternatives between phrases or multi-word terms or compounds, a space before and after the slash makes text easier to read.

Is there a space after a period?

Unless you are typing on an actual typewriter,

you no longer have to put two spaces after a period

. Or a question mark. Or an exclamation point. The rule applies to all end punctuation.

Does & Need space?

An ampersand (&) is used as a shortened form of and. …

Leave one space before and after an ampersand

. Apostrophe. Use an apostrophe to show where letters have been omitted, for example, don’t, shouldn’t, o’clock.

Do you need 2 spaces after a period?

According to the AP Stylebook,

single-spacing is correct

. The same goes for the Chicago Manual of Style. However, the Modern Language Association Style Center offers different advice, and suggests that writers use a single space after a period unless they have been explicitly told otherwise.

What is two spaces after a period called?

(This is called

a mono-spaced font

.) With a typewriter, it makes sense to add an extra space to make it clear that the sentence has ended. Today’s word-processing software makes fonts proportional, though, which is why we only need one space.

Do you put two spaces between sentences?


Always put exactly one space between sentences

. Or more generally: put exactly one space after any punctuation. Here’s a paragraph with one space between sentences: I know that many people were taught to put two spaces between sentences.

Is there a space after the number symbol?


Do not space between the number and the number sign

. (The sign before a number means number and after a number it means pounds.)

Do we need a space before?

As a general rule, in

English there is no space before and one space after a punctuation mark

.

Do you put space between number and unit?


There is a space between a number

and a unit of measurement e.g. 20 mg – except for temperatures e.g. 20°C and percentages e.g. 20% (or in text use 20 per cent). When giving a range do not repeat the unit, e.g. 5 to 8 mg and not 5 mg to 8 mg. Use the word ‘to’ in text, not a dash.

How many times should you space after a comma?

3. Place

one space after a comma

, a semicolon, and other forms of punctuation falling within a sentence.

How many spaces after a period is legal?

7.

One or two spaces after periods

? There is a general presumption against double spacing after a period. When proofreading your writing, do a Ctrl+F search for “[period][space][space]” to get rid of any double spacing between sentences.

How many spaces is needed before and after inserting a dash?

Sometimes confused with the hyphen, a dash comes between words as a form of division, whereas a hyphen generally joins words or parts of words to indicate a connection. When typing, use two hyphens together without spaces to form a dash.

Do not put a space before or after the dash

.

When did we stop putting two spaces after a period?

While wide sentence spacing was phased out in the printing industry in

the mid-20th century

, the practice continued on typewriters and later on computers.

What do you call the space between sentences?


Line spacing

controls how all lines of a paragraph are spaced. For example, say you’re using a 12 point font for the text in your paragraph. If you choose single line spacing, the space between lines will be 12 points.

David Martineau
Author
David Martineau
David is an interior designer and home improvement expert. With a degree in architecture, David has worked on various renovation projects and has written for several home and garden publications. David's expertise in decorating, renovation, and repair will help you create your dream home.