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As a general rule, in English there is no space before and one space after a punctuation mark. Exceptions follow.
No space before or after a decimal period between numerals:
A space before and none after a decimal period not preceded by a numeral:
A space after a period following a person’s initial:
No space before or after a period in multiple numeration:
No space before or after a period when followed by a comma or a closing quotation mark, parenthesis or bracket:
No space before the periods following the capital letters in the official abbreviations of provinces and territories and no space after such periods except the last one:
A space before, between and after ellipsis points:
See also 7.05 Ellipsis points and 8.09 Omissions.
No space before or after a question or exclamation mark when followed by a closing quotation mark, parenthesis or bracket:
No space before or after a comma when followed by a closing quotation mark:
No space before or after a comma used to separate triads in numbers (see Note 2 in 5.09 Decimal fractions):
No space before or after a colon when used to express ratios or the time of day using the 24-hour clock, or to separate chapter and verse, volume and page, act and scene in references to books, plays, etc.:
One space before and none after an opening parenthesis or bracket within a sentence; no space before or after a closing parenthesis or bracket when followed by a punctuation mark:
No space before or between parentheses enclosing subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, etc., in citations from legislation:
No space before or after these marks when they are inserted between words, a word and a numeral, or two numerals:
No space before or after an oblique when used between individual words, letters or symbols; one space before and after the oblique when used between longer groups which contain internal spacing:
No space before or after an apostrophe within a word.
One space before and none after an apostrophe used to indicate omitted figures in dates:
One space before and none after an opening quotation mark within a sentence; no space before or after a closing quotation mark when followed by a punctuation mark:
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