In Spanish questions are phrased the same way as affirmations, when you are speaking the only difference is the intonation. Without a mark to say you are starting to read a question it's possible that the meaning changes in the end which would be annoying. (Source: Portuguese is the same but has no inverted question mark, and sometimes it's mighty annoying, especially with long questions)

[–] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

Portuguese is the same but has no inverted question mark, and sometimes it's mighty annoying,

¿What if you just used them anyway?
¡Problem solved!

[–] Anamana@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah that's true for any language really

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not really. In my language subject and verb get switched around in a question. So you immediately know it’s a question when you start reading the sentence.

[–] Anamana@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Can you give me an example?

Edit: Ok thanks guys, I got it :D

[–] araozu@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe

I do like cats
Do I like cats?

but taken to the extreme?

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Hij schreef een bericht. (He wrote a message)
Schreef hij een bericht? (Did he wrote a message?)

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

In Dutch you can often tell it's a question from the start because the order of verb and object have changed.

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Zeg eens, waarom wil je zo graag met een CEO slapen?

[–] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Fuck Spez daarom

[–] aka_oscar@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Can you give me an example - Question

You can give me an example - Affirmation

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know you already got it but a few others came to my mind:

Finnish, which not a tonal language:

Sinä pidät kahvista. (“You like coffee.”)
Pidätkö kahvista? ("You like coffee?")

Japanese:

Anata wa kōhī ga sukidesu. ("You like coffee.")
Kōhī wa sukidesu ka? ("You like coffee?")

I think you'll find the pattern of question words/suffixes in nearly every language that is not explicitly tonal.

[–] Anamana@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah that's initially why I thought there was no difference to Spanish. But the difference is Spanish actually doesn't have an option where you switch subject and verb. Didn't know that :)

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

É de facto irritante. Nada como estar na escola e um prof pede para ler. Estás calmamente a ler o texto e de repente tens de forçar a porcaria da entoação para sobrecompensar o facto de que não reparaste que era uma pergunta