No, You Don’t Need Two Spaces After a Period

One of the quickest ways to date yourself as a writer is to add two spaces instead of just one in between each sentence. Listen, I KNOW your English teacher told you that you have to do it. But it’s time for them—and you—to let it go and embrace the present and future of typesetting: one space between each sentence.

It’s actually been about fifty YEARS since it was necessary to add double spaces between sentences, but still people are stubbornly hitting that space bar twice. If that’s you, this is me begging you to stop.

The Outdated Rule

Many writers who are about forty years old or older were probably taught to add two spaces between every sentence. This rule is outdated and incorrect.

The REAL Rule

Just about every style guide and modern typographer agrees that only ONE space is needed between sentences.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association instructs writers to “insert one space after periods and other punctuation marks at the end of a sentence.

The Chicago Manual of Style states, “Like most publishers, Chicago advises leaving a single character space, not two spaces, between sentences.” It continues, “In fact, a well-structured electronic document will never include more than one consecutive character space.”

The Modern Language Association Style Manual agrees with the one-space-between-sentences rule, and so does every other modern style guide out there. One space is standard, so why are people so hesitant to follow this rule?

Why Do People Put Two Spaces?

There is only one thing to blame for the misunderstanding about spaces between sentences: the manual typewriter.

Manual typewriters used a monospace type, which means that every letter and character took up the same amount of space. So a tiny “i” or “l” would use the same amount of horizontal space as an “m” or “w,” leaving lots of empty space around those thinner letters. Because spacing was uneven and a bit awkward, it was difficult to tell at a glance where one sentence ended and another began.

To make up for this problem, people added two spaces after each sentence.

That’s all fine and dandy for typewriters, but those monospaced fonts stopped being an issue around the 1970s! Electric typewriters and computers didn’t have the same problem: The fonts on these newer machines use spacing proportional to the letters, so there is no longer a bunch of extra space around thin letters like “i.” Today, proportional fonts abound, and the monospace problem only occurs if you’re using a font like Courier that’s monospaced on purpose to look old fashioned.

Unfortunately, the teachers and parents who grew up with typewriters just kept teaching that two-spaces-between-sentences rule, and it created another generation of folks who thought they had to double space after every period.

The Problem With Double Spaces Between Sentences

If so many people stubbornly (albeit incorrectly) insist on adding two spaces between sentences, why don’t we just let them?

One of the main problems with double spaces between sentences is that it is more likely to create “rivers” of empty space in your text. A “river” occurs when spaces on different lines of text align with one another, creating a string of blank spaces in a paragraph. It’s distracting and makes it more difficult to read the writing. This can happen with single spaces between sentences, but it’s much more likely to happen with double spaces.

Another problem is that adding too much space between sentences can break up the text so that it doesn’t flow as well as it could. If the reader is having to jump between sentences, they are less likely to get lost in a story.

Finally, it’s just more work to add an extra space in between sentences. Save your thumbs the effort and stick to just one!

Check out another grammar “rule” that isn’t really a rule anymore here!

Sources:

• American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020.
• The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• Manjoo, Farhad. “Two Spaces After a Period: Why You Should Never, Ever Do It.” Slate Magazine, January 12, 2011. https://slate.com/technology/2011/01/two-spaces-after-a-period-why-you-should-never-ever-do-it.html.