Comments on: Using the Question Mark

By: novvie

novvie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:56:18 +0000

I think the use is not so complicated, but I REALLY NEED to know if this sentence is correct or not : Did he asked me “What is it?”?

Please HELP!!!

By: Bethany

Bethany — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:04:37 +0000

I would agree with Jeff’s comment. The same thought made me click through my reader to see what others had said. The inverted construction of the subject and verb is an obvious mark of a question. If you changed the pronoun (will he reply?), it’s a question. I’d caution the guide of an upward lilt because of the phenomenon of up-speak first seen in “valley girls” and now popular in various settings. You know what I mean? (Though that’s I guess is technically a colloquial statement that has dropped of the “Do” and then it’s a standard question construction again.)

By: Leisureguy

Leisureguy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:02:54 +0000

My understanding is that both the question mark and the exclamation mark denote tone of voice and thus do not necessary end the sentence—i.e., it can be perfectly correct for the word following either of these to be uncapitalized and part of the same sentence. Examples taken from The Reader Over Your Shoulder, by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge:

‘And then, horror! in marched Mrs. Blackstone with the little corpse held out accusingly between the pincers of the kitchen fire-tongs!’

‘That she had asked herself, was he really there? or was she imagining things? now troubled her conscience.’

By: Jeff Gee

Jeff Gee — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:24:01 +0000

I would disagree with the final example: “Will you please reply as soon as possible?”. I think a very good and easy rule for the application of a question mark is to use one if, when spoken, the word or sentence ends with an upward lilt; a verbal question mark. This type of sentence seems to do so, do you not agree?

By: Levi Montgomery

Levi Montgomery — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:52:37 +0000

You left off a usage which, though improper, is quite common. The question mark is often used, especially in dialogue, either written or spoken (if you will allow me to say a “question mark” is used in speech), at the end of a statement that implies an internal question, the most common of which is the statement of wondering something.

What should be a simple declarative statement (”I wonder if she ever got home.”) is rendered as a question, thus: “I wonder if she ever got home?”

I wonder if they realize that drives me nuts.