The question mark

Question marks are used at the end of a sentence to indicate to the reader that it is a direct question:

Why are you withdrawing all your money?

Reported questions, however, don’t use a question mark, they just use a period:

Your father will ask you why you are withdrawing all your money.

This sentence is a reported or indirect question because you’re talking about how someone else is asking something. You’re reporting on a question being asked by someone else.

Rhetorical questions require a question mark at the end of the sentence, even though they aren’t actually searching for an answer:

Why, oh why does this have to happen to me?

Statements that have been turned into questions also need question marks:

I’m going to get to the race nice and early; you will too?

The first part of the sentence is just a statement saying that you’re going to get to the race early, but the ‘you will too?’ at the end turns it into a question.

A question mark at the end of a sentence means that you don’t need a period as well.

Click here to move on to the next topic: The colon