küsimärk

Küsimärk is the Estonian term for the punctuation mark used at the end of direct questions. In Estonian orthography it is the character "?" and serves to indicate an interrogative tone. The word küsi-märk literally means “question mark” (küsimus = question, märk = mark).

Usage and rules: A küsimärk marks direct questions, as in Kuidas sul läheb? or Kas sa tuled homme? Indirect questions embedded in statements typically do not end with a question mark, for example Ma küsin, kuidas sul läheb. In general Estonian punctuation follows the same rule as many other languages: there is no space before the question mark, and a space after it if another sentence begins. When a direct question is part of a quotation, the placement of the mark follows standard quotation rules of Estonian typography.

History and typography: The question mark has a long history in the Latin-script tradition, with its exact origins not definitively known. It gained widespread standardization in printed texts across Europe, and the Estonian writing system adopted the same symbol as part of the Latin alphabet. In modern usage, the küsimärk appears in both print and digital text and retains the same functional meaning.

Encoding and typography notes: In digital text, the küsimärk is represented by the Unicode code point U+003F (the ASCII/Unicode question mark). Varieties such as fullwidth forms exist for compatibility with other writing systems. There are no Estonian-specific forms of the symbol.

See also: Exclamation mark; inverted question mark (used in other languages, not standard in Estonian).