{"id":163,"date":"2018-08-02T16:16:21","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T21:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/?p=163"},"modified":"2020-05-18T10:31:42","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T14:31:42","slug":"question-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Question Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quite commonly used, the rules regarding question marks are very little and very easy to use. <\/span><\/p>\n

Uses of Question Marks<\/h1>\n

Question marks are used to punctuate and end interrogative sentences. Direct questions are commonly introduced with <\/span>who, what, when, where<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>why<\/span><\/i>. However, every question isn\u2019t framed as a direct question. Sometimes, declarative or imperative sentences can be framed as a question by adding a question mark to signify surprise, doubt, or disbelief. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: I\u2019m sorry, who are you?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You want to drop out of school and become a comedian?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Question Marks with Quotation Marks<\/h1>\n

While placing a question mark at the end of an interrogative sentence is simple enough, it can get confusing when it is placed near other punctuations. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the question mark belongs only to a phrase inside quotation marks, it should be placed inside the quotations. If the question mark pertains to the whole sentence, place it at the end of the sentence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: Ben asked, \u201cwhat are you doing?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t you want to finish studying \u201cfrom your notes\u201d?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If a quoted phrase contains a question and the whole sentence is also a question, place the question mark at the end of the sentence. The same holds true if a quotation containing a question. If there is a quoted phrase inside an interrogative sentence, use only one question mark. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: She blankly stated, \u201cthe CEO yelled at him for \u2018doing a poor job\u2019 on the project.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhy did you \u2018do a poor job\u2019 on this important project\u201d?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Question Marks and Parentheses<\/h1>\n

Similar to the rules regarding quotation marks, place the question mark at the end of the sentence if the whole sentence is interrogative in nature. However, if only the parenthetical phrase is a question, place the question mark within parentheses. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: How did Ben climb the wall (without getting hurt)?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I heard that Ben climbed a wall (and didn\u2019t get hurt?).<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Question Marks for Indirect Questions<\/h1>\n

One type of question that shouldn\u2019t end in a question mark is an indirect question. Placed within declarative sentences, it can be hard to decide if a sentence is an indirect question or a direct question. However, in such situations, it\u2019s acceptable to treat it as an indirect question. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: \u00a0Ben wondered which wall he should try to climb.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Everyone pondered why Ben was so interested in climbing a wall. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More Than a Question Mark<\/h1>\n

There are times when a simple question mark just doesn\u2019t seem to be enough. Especially for questions with an undertone of surprise and excitement, it is common to see the use of interrobangs. A mix of question marks and exclamation points, interrobangs should only be used in informal or casual writing. When writing, if you want to inject enthusiasm into a question without using interrobangs, rewrite the question to avoid its use. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Example: Did you know? Ben successfully climbed that wall and won the competition!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ben successfully climbed that wall and won the competition!?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quite commonly used, the rules regarding question marks are very little and very easy to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15,40,48],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-punctuation","tag-question"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nQuestion Mark - Linguix Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Question Mark\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Quite commonly used, the rules regarding question marks are very little and very easy to use.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Linguix Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-02T21:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-18T14:31:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/\",\"name\":\"Question Mark - Linguix Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-02T21:16:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-18T14:31:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2d25ff2c644630c3df69792e1c587e89\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg\",\"width\":1950,\"height\":1300},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Question Mark\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Linguix Blog\",\"description\":\"Writing about using technology to create content and build effective communications.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2d25ff2c644630c3df69792e1c587e89\",\"name\":\"Brett Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a882a0a2613bc1b3c03f6dfdeaca767c?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a882a0a2613bc1b3c03f6dfdeaca767c?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brett Johnson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/author\/brett-johnson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Question Mark - Linguix Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Question Mark","og_description":"Quite commonly used, the rules regarding question marks are very little and very easy to use.","og_url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/","og_site_name":"Linguix Blog","article_published_time":"2018-08-02T21:16:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-18T14:31:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1950,"height":1300,"url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brett Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brett Johnson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/","name":"Question Mark - Linguix Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-02T21:16:21+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-18T14:31:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2d25ff2c644630c3df69792e1c587e89"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/photo-1484069560501-87d72b0c3669.jpg","width":1950,"height":1300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/question-mark\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Question Mark"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/","name":"Linguix Blog","description":"Writing about using technology to create content and build effective communications.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2d25ff2c644630c3df69792e1c587e89","name":"Brett Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a882a0a2613bc1b3c03f6dfdeaca767c?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a882a0a2613bc1b3c03f6dfdeaca767c?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Brett Johnson"},"url":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/author\/brett-johnson\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguix.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}