The period (full stop) is the punctuation mark that marks the grammatical and logical end of a sentence.
The main difference comes from its greatest use in English. In Spanish, the period generally signals a pause or separation; the relationship is generally expressed with the comma and the semicolon.
English uses the period before conjunctions, adverbs, or phrases, whereas Spanish opts for a pause that is less marked.
The period is used in English to signal decimals and the comma (NOT the apostrophe) to set off thousands, millions, etc. In Spanish, the practice is the opposite.
It is important to highlight the case of Mexico, as pointed out by Jennifer in the comments, where the system for use of periods in numbers reflects the English system.
Related posts
Tags: English, grammar, period, punctuation, Spanish
In Mexico, we would never use comma to signal decimals, which is why Mexican Spanish Translations are unique and require specialized translators.
Actually, the same applies to several Hispanoamerican countries where the same rules of use of periods to signal decimals is used as in English.
And this practice is accepted by the Real Academia Española as you can see here: http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltConsulta?lema=punto (scroll down to 4.4).
Jennifer -
It’s quite true what you say about Mexico and I should have pointed out that exception in the original post. It is also worth noting that the case of Mexico is the exception to the rule. I will now update it to reflect that.
Thanks for reading and keeping us on our toes!