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<span id="Ending-a-Sentence"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="_0040frenchspacing.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@frenchspacing</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Not-Ending-a-Sentence.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Not Ending a Sentence</a>, Up: <a href="Inserting-Space.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Inserting Space</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<span id="Ending-a-Sentence-1"></span><h4 class="subsection">12.3.3 Ending a Sentence</h4>
<span id="index-Ending-a-Sentence"></span>
<span id="index-Sentence-ending-punctuation"></span>
<span id="index-_002e-_0028end-of-sentence_0029"></span>
<span id="index-_0021-_0028end-of-sentence_0029"></span>
<span id="index-_003f-_0028end-of-sentence_0029"></span>
<span id="index-Spacing_002c-at-ends-of-sentences"></span>
<p>As mentioned above, Texinfo normally inserts additional space after
the end of a sentence. It uses the same heuristic for this as TeX:
a sentence ends with a period, exclamation point, or question mark,
either preceded or followed by optional closing punctuation, and then
whitespace, and <em>not</em> preceded by a capital letter.
</p>
<p>Use <code>@.</code> instead of a period, <code>@!</code> instead of an
exclamation point, and <code>@?</code> instead of a question mark at the
end of a sentence that does end with a capital letter. Do not put
braces after any of these commands. For example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W@. Also, give it to R.J.C@.
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.
</pre></div>
<p>The output follows. In printed output and Info, you can see the
desired extra whitespace after the ‘<samp>W</samp>’ in the first line.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.<br>
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.
</p></blockquote>
<p>In the HTML output, <code>@.</code> is equivalent to a simple ‘<samp>.</samp>’;
likewise for <code>@!</code> and <code>@?</code>.
</p>
<span id="index-Closing-punctuation_002c-and-sentence-ending"></span>
<p>The “closing punctuation” mentioned above is defined as a right
parenthesis (‘<samp>)</samp>’, right bracket (‘<samp>]</samp>’), or right quote,
either single or double (‘<samp>'</samp>’ and ‘<samp>''</samp>’; the many possible
additional Unicode right quotes are not included). These characters
can be thought of as invisible with respect to whether a given period
ends a sentence. (This is the same rule as TeX.) For instance,
the periods in ‘<samp>foo.) Bar</samp>’ and ‘<samp>foo.'' Bar</samp>’ do end
sentences.
</p>
<p>The meanings of <code>@:</code> and <code>@.</code>, etc. in Texinfo are
designed to work well with the Emacs sentence motion commands
(see <a href="../emacs/Sentences.html#Sentences">Sentences</a> in <cite>The GNU Emacs Manual</cite>). It may help to
imagine that the ‘<samp>@</samp>’ in ‘<samp>@.</samp>’, etc., is an invisible
lower-case letter ‘a’ which makes an upper-case letter before it
immaterial for the purposes of deciding whether the period ends the
sentence.
</p>
<p>A few Texinfo commands are not considered as being an abbreviation,
even though they may end with a capital letter when expanded, so that
you don’t have to insert <code>@.</code> and companions. Notably, this is
the case for code-like highlighting commands, <code>@var</code> arguments
ending with a capital letter, <code>@LaTeX</code>, and <code>@TeX</code>. For
example, that sentence ended with ‘<samp>... @code{@@TeX}.</samp>’;
<code>@.</code> was not needed. Similarly, in
<code>... @var{VARNAME}. Text</code> the period after <var>VARNAME</var> ends
the sentence; there is no need to use <code>@.</code>.
</p>
<hr>
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<p>
Next: <a href="_0040frenchspacing.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@frenchspacing</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Not-Ending-a-Sentence.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Not Ending a Sentence</a>, Up: <a href="Inserting-Space.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Inserting Space</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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