Excessive use of exclamation marks

Karen B.C1Kwiziq community member

Excessive use of exclamation marks

Does anyone else find an over use of the exclamation marks ? I don’t take off marks if I don’t put in as many as given in the answers. Is this a particular French thing? 

Asked 6 months ago
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Yes, English is stingy with exclamation marks compared to French. Chalk it up to French exuberance. :))

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I had assumed it was mostly just the style of some of the staff members, and perhaps also because they are younger than me. However, it does seem that exclamation marks are statistically more frequent in French. According to this study there are almost twice as many exclamation marks in French as in English (table 1).

https://www.proquest.com/openview/10178f183dff09f10397b3385e9941c9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026598

In this article it's suggested that the exclamation mark is less emphatic in French.

https://www.thoughtco.com/french-exclamations-1368844

CécileNative French expert teacher in Kwiziq

This is turning out to be a fascinating conversation!

I had a look at how the Japanese use the exclamation mark because to me as a people they are the opposite of the French - very polite, don't like to show emotions or make a noise (;-)) and it would appear that they do use it just like us in informal speech -

"The Japanese exclamation mark is used just like the Western one. It shows volume or emotion or both. You won't see exclamation marks in formal Japanese, though it's really common everywhere else, especially on Twitter, email, and text."

Our overuse is probably testimony to our passion as a people? !!!!!!

G B.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I also don't mark myself down for exclamation marks. What I find difficult is that they don't necessarily match the intonation of the voice over and that is what I use as a guide to whether they're used or not.

Paul F.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Yeah, I don't mark myself down either! Or I would get very frustrated! Over the years I have been doing these exercises I have occasionally come across a conversation where every single sentence is an exclamation! What's worse is not only do I omit them more often than not when they should be there, but also I sometimes put them in places where the the exercise calls for a plain old full stop!!! Can't take a trick!

(I have also found that these exercises tend to use more commas than I would but I'm no punctuation expert)

Excessive use of exclamation marks

Does anyone else find an over use of the exclamation marks ? I don’t take off marks if I don’t put in as many as given in the answers. Is this a particular French thing? 

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