Can you end a rhetorical question with a period

He shouldn't have quit his diet, should he? They're not doing very well, are they? He finished on time, didn't he?

She does a beautiful job, doesn't she? Harold may come along, mightn't he? There were too many people on the dock, weren't there? Be careful of this last one; it's not "weren't they? The instructor asked the students what they were doing.

I asked my sister if she had a date. I wonder if Cheney will run for vice president again. I wonder whether Cheney will run again. The three most common punctuation marks that come at the end of a sentence are the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point.

In MLA, a sentence is followed by a single space, no matter what the concluding punctuation is. Periods indicate a neutral sentence, and as such are by far the most common ending punctuation mark. A question mark comes at the end of a question so now you know.

Direct questions obviously use question marks, but so do rhetorical questions, which writers employ to make a point, and which do not expect an answer. Often the answer is implied or obvious, e. Indirect questions can be used in many of the same ways as direct ones, but they often emphasize knowledge or lack of knowledge:. As for my personal style, I don't use rhetorical questions much, but when I do I end them with question marks.

Rhetorical questions are written as any other question, and in English a sentence is never ended with a question mark and a period, even in the case the question is being quoted. I have never seen a question mark followed by a period to mark the question as rhetorical.

It is the context to make a question rhetorical. I believe that all three are technically correct, but have different connotations. The question mark implies you want an answer. The Exclamation point makes it sound like you are complaining. The period makes it sound like you're being sarcastic. This is just how I interpret them when reading, even if its not as the writer intended.

If the rhetorical question does not fall in one of these 3 categories, I'd advise against writing it as a rhetorical question. Why not google 'question mark' as I just did and you'll find that direct implying, not all questions require a question mark. I would define the last three sentences as colloquialisms, meaning they are not grammatically correct, but understood to be polite, imperative commands.

Defining them as rhetorical questions only justifies the punctuation, grammatically. Often well-defined colloquialisms become standard English anyway. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. Scott Fitzgerald.

Practice Are exclamation points used appropriately in these sentences? Explain why or why not. Simone gave each of her friends fifty dollars! I loved the play last night!!!!! Juanita fell down the stairs!

However, if someone was asking you if there was too much punctuation, you may want to advise them away from that many exclamation points. While the exclamation point may be appropriate in some contexts—if Juanita is normally graceful, or if Juanita had already fallen down several times that day—in most cases, this sentence should just end with a period.

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