The question mark

The question mark (?) is known as the interrogation mark or interrogation point in American English.

Direct Questions

A question mark is placed at the end of a word, phrase or sentence to show that what comes before it is a direct question. For example:

• What is your name?
• Where are you from?
• Can you open the window, please?
• Do you like football?
• What's that?
• Who?

Direct Quotations

A question mark is also used if the question is a direct quotation that repeats the speaker's exact words:

• "Do you like football?", he asked.
• "Can you open the window?", she asked.

Indirect Questions

A question mark is not used when the question is indirect:

• He asked if I liked football.
• I asked her if she could open the window.
• Where is she from, I wondered.

Expressing Doubt

The question mark can also be used to express doubt or uncertainty about a word or phrase. In this case the question mark is usually put in curved brackets (parentheses). For example, in the folowing sentence the writer is not sure of the colour of the man's jacket:

• He had brown hair and a beard, and he was wearing a green (?) jacket and blue jeans.

Informal Use

More than one question mark is sometimes used in informal writing when writing an especially strong question. For example:

• Are you sure??
• What did you say??

Sometimes the question mark is followed by an exclamation mark for the same effect:

• Are you sure??!
• What did you say?!

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