# How many spaces between sentences? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703 "2010-09-22T21:36:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/141 "2010-09-27T14:19:54Z")
I’m heartbroken, over here, sam, just heartbroken. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/142 "2010-09-27T14:27:04Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > > [@Walmarticus](#): > > > > WTF? Why would anyone type two spaces in a row? (as a child of the 80s) > > I do it because it’s a habit that I learned in typing class. Humans tend to keep doing things that they learned as habits, especially things learned in childhood. I learned to put two spaces after a period because if I didn’t, it would count as a typo, and if I had too many typos in a given assignment, it would lower my grade. > > Yes, I COULD probably change, but it’s not something that really affects me, and for that matter, it doesn’t affect very many people. **If I was a copyeditor or something, yeah, I’d probably change.** As my life is now, though, I’m not going to bother to make the effort. In the spirit of the thread… _If I **were** a copyeditor_. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/143 "2010-09-27T16:31:27Z")
> [@What's Up With People Still Double-Spacing After a Period](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-people-still-double-spacing-after-a-period/492858/82): > > …IMHO, two spaces between sentences doesn’t look better or enhance clarity, which is probably why virtually every bit of **typeset** print that everyone here has ever read in their lives only has a single space between sentences. Look at any professionally-produced magazine or book if you don’t believe me. > > You only see two spaces in monospaced, typed documents and word-processed documents by people who still think that the modern word processor is a typewriter. No you don’t. As I mentioned in a previous thread (can’t be bothered looking, but I remember **pulykammel** was involved) there’s plenty of examples of typeset documents with double or one-and-a-half spacing after a full stop. From what I can gather, the “hard and fast rule” that everybody talks about when referencing double spacing is anything but, and a relatively recent innovation. Witness Wikipedia’s take on [Sentence Spacing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing), for instance: > [@](#): > > Since the introduction of movable-type printing in Europe, various sentence spacing conventions have been used in languages with a Latin-derived alphabet.[2] > These include a normal word space (as between the words in a sentence), a single enlarged space, and two full spaces. Although modern digital fonts can automatically adjust a single word space to create visually pleasing and consistent spacing following terminal punctuation,[3] most debate is about whether to strike a keyboard’s spacebar once or twice between sentences.[4] Besides, I’ll say again, virtually every typeset mathematics, physics and computer science textbook uses English spacing, or a near approximation of it. There are still plenty of typeset books being produced today that eschew single spacing, in favour of enlarged spaces after full stops. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/144 "2010-09-27T17:50:13Z")
Ah, yes, I do remember. [This is the thread in question.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11596959) The double space gives me a visual “hiccup.” I can’t stand it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/145 "2010-09-27T18:06:32Z")
One because I word process. When I typed on a typewriter it was two. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/146 "2010-09-28T04:46:33Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > OH! You were in doubt as to whether I’m evil? Yes, I AM evil. Don’t make me prove it. > > You say “evil” like it’s a bad thing. 😉 > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I’m heartbroken, over here, sam, just heartbroken. From a recent Roger Ebert movie review: **“One of the most dangerous concepts of human society is that children believe what they are told. Those who grow out of that become adults, a status not always achieved by their parents.”** I feel certain he had the single- versus double-space issue in the back of his mind. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/147 "2010-09-28T05:58:40Z")
two. I was also taught two spaces between the State and Zip in Addresses. Or on an envelope put the zip on a separate line. I usually keep it on the same line with two spaces. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/148 "2010-09-28T06:06:33Z")
Funny thing. When I took my programming classes “white space” was pounded into our brains. There were rules for indenting and spacing your computer code. You’d lose a grade step (A to B) for not doing it exactly by the teacher’s standards. Then html comes along and rips out all the extra spacing. Html hates white space. It won’t let you use two spaces after a period. weird huh? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/149 "2010-09-28T19:13:55Z")
You could always force it with two   in a row. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/150 "2010-09-28T19:23:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Funny thing. When I took my programming classes “white space” was pounded into our brains. There were rules for indenting and spacing your computer code. You’d lose a grade step (A to B) for not doing it exactly by the teacher’s standards. > > Then html comes along and rips out all the extra spacing. Html hates white space. It won’t let you use two spaces after a period. weird huh? I’m probably telling you nothing you didn’t already know, but white space in code has nothing to do with the code itself. It’s purely for readability so that someone else can read your code and understand what’s going on. I’m not sure what that has to do with HTML displaying only a single space. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/151 "2010-09-28T19:37:32Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I’m probably telling you nothing you didn’t already know, but white space in code has nothing to do with the code itself. Unless you use Python… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/152 "2010-09-28T19:55:32Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > > [@Bosstone](#): > > > > I’m probably telling you nothing you didn’t already know, but white space in code has nothing to do with the code itself. > > Unless you use Python… or Haskell (although it gives you an option to use braces, too.) Or, if you want to take syntactic white space to the nth degree, there’s the [Whitespace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_%28programming_language%29) programming language. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/153 "2010-09-28T20:00:16Z")
Well, yes. But even then, I don’t see what the relevance is to HTML. If white space matters to the programming language, then it’s critical to the code that you put in exactly as much white space as your desired program requires. If it doesn’t matter, than it’s purely for aesthetics and readability. And in both cases it has nothing to do (that I can see) with HTML stripping out all extra spaces when displaying text. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/154 "2010-09-28T20:18:42Z")
One. People who use two should have their thumbs cut off. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/155 "2010-09-28T20:37:26Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > > [@LouisB](#): > > > > I selected 2 because that is what I would do IF I were using a typewriter, which I haven’t done in a very long time. If I were writing a report or something formal with a computer, I would use 1.5 and 1.15 in other circumstances. > > \*What the…? > \* > Are some people voting for line spacing instead of space after a period? I’ve just got to start reading the OP; sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/156 "2010-09-28T20:44:36Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > One. > > People who use two should have their thumbs cut off. …and people that use one should have their middle thumb cut off. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/157 "2010-09-28T20:55:15Z")
Further nitpick: HTML isn’t a programming language. It’s markup. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/158 "2010-09-28T20:58:54Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Further nitpick: HTML isn’t a programming language. It’s markup. Same context applies, though. I mentioned my puzzlement over **aceplace57** ’s post to a friend and she got so mad at me she couldn’t talk, without ever articulating _why_. So, um, I’m prepared to accept I may be dense about something, but I have no clue. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/159 "2010-09-29T01:56:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > > [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > > > Unless you use Python… > > or Haskell (although it gives you an option to use braces, too.) Or, if you want to take syntactic white space to the nth degree, there’s the [Whitespace](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_%28programming_language%29) programming language. Cute! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Klostertal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Klostertal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klostertal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703/160 "2010-09-29T03:21:58Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > **People, it’s ONE.** > > Seriously. I am trained in typography. Old-timers (myself included) were taught two spaces because of the nature of monospaced letters on a typewriter.[/SIZE]\* Well I’ll be goddamned. I’m 25 years old and I’ve already been called an old-timer. I attended K-12 between 1990 and 2003 and was always taught to use two spaces. I never used a typewriter; computer keyboards were old hat by the time I started kindergarten. In college, I continued to use two spaces and never had a single comment on it the entire time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-spaces-between-sentences/554703.md?page=9)