# Extremely important grammatical question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 17, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370 "2002-07-17T06:47:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/1 "2002-07-17T06:47:32Z")
One can end a sentence with a period, like this. Or one can end a sentence with a question mark, can one not? But can one properly end a sentence with a smilie:) Or does one have to use a period or question mark as well? :mad: And if the latter, is the smilie part of the sentence such that it goes before the period or question mark 😕? Or is it effectively a new sentence such that it comes after?:smack:
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/2 "2002-07-17T10:42:35Z")
My take on it: smilies are not linguistic communication. They might count as paralinguistic (like the gestures, intonations and facial expressions which accompany, and sometimes modify the sense of, spoken language), but they’re not linguistic. So, the rules of linguistic communication aren’t relevant to smilies. So, you should punctuate your sentences as if the smilies aren’t there. A smilie isn’t part of a sentence, or a new sentence - it’s just a smilie, a paralinguistic entity in its own right.
My opinion. Anyone care to differ?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/3 "2002-07-17T10:46:57Z")
Hmmm…more of a style question than a grammar question. And I doubt a factual answer exists. My style is this:
1. End sentence with proper punctuation mark.
2. Smilies follow punctuation mark.
3. Smilies, of course, do not need their own punctuation. However, exclamation marks and question marks can be used to shade the meaning of smilies.
4. Same with mid-sentence smilies - I put them after the comma, if there is one. Now smilies within quotes, well, if it’s part of the quoted material or necessary for the contextual understanding of the quoted material, I’d keep the smilie within the quote. Otherwise it goes outside the quote.
5. Serial smilies do not need to be separated by commas.
Anyhow, that’s what I think.
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### Author:  [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/4 "2002-07-17T13:41:05Z")
What if the smiley has a question mark over its head? 😕 ?
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/5 "2002-07-17T13:52:07Z")
Heh. It’s definitely a style question, since smilies aren’t words. 🙂
In truth, I put them after the end punctuation unless the smiley is part of the sentence. E.g. - It hurts when I ;).
> [@](#):
>
> What if the smiley has a question mark over its head? 😕 ?
I think the smiley is a thingy in and of itself and shouldn’t be used as an end punctuation. Now, you can end your sentence like this if you want 🙂
but that doesn’t mean the 🙂 is acting as an actual period - it’s just **there**.
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### Author:  [@Allen\_Parine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Allen_Parine)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/6 "2002-07-17T17:29:32Z")
A linguistic hijack: What would it take for a smiley to become a word, i.e. something like an Egyptian hieroglyph or a kanji? Does a written word have to correspond to a spoken one, or can there be words that only appear in print? Maybe le passé simple is an example of this. Of course words in passé simple can at least be pronounced, but I’ve no idea how one would pronounce 🙂 if reading aloud.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2002, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extremely-important-grammatical-question/119370/7 "2002-07-17T18:05:02Z")
You don’t pronounce it. You imitate the appropriate expression when reading aloud. Though a few may be more difficult than others if you don’t have the proper props (i.e. a yarmulke as in ;j)