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Suppose I am writing to a friend, asking if he remembers a certain question I asked him. Do any of the following sentences correctly use the question mark?

Do you remember when I asked you "do you know the time"?

Do you remember when I asked you "do you know the time?"

Do you remember when I asked you "do you know the time?"?

Less specifically, what is the general rule that can be applied to such a situation?

Community
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  • Your middle version is correct. The question mark goes inside the quotation marks as the terminal punctuation of the sentence. – GMB Jul 01 '14 at 00:43

2 Answers2

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http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-punctuate-quotations-with-question-marks.html Some of you detail-oriented (okay, picky) people may want to know what to do when the quotation and the sentence are both questions. Read on.

For those rare occasions when both the quoted words and the sentence are questions, put the question mark inside the quotation marks. Here’s an example of this rule:

Did the mover really ask, “Is that lady for real?”

ken
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  • I don't know if dummies was quoting from another source, but English Grammar For Dummies is only a helpful guide and not an authority. There are various styles in practice. – Kris Jul 01 '14 at 09:57
  • @Kris: looking at the answers and comments for this question and the duplicate question, people have located the answer in five or six style guides and they all recommend the same thing. Do you know of one that disagrees? – Peter Shor Jul 01 '14 at 22:20
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The general principle is that each question should receive a question mark (which suggests the 3rd option). And of course this would cause a conflict with another general principle in elegant writing, that multiple terminal punctuation should not be combined (therefore no double full stops, question marks, or combining a question mark with a full stop), and this suggests the first or second option. The first principle is roughly based on logic. The second is based on aesthetics.

The 'aesthetic' consideration also triumphs the 'logical consideration' in American style punctuation. (He called it "ridiculous.") It is not surprising therefore that American style guides would recommend the second option. My own feeling is the British style would go for the first option because punctuation outside quotation marks is common (He called it 'ridiculous'.)

Peter
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  • The Oxford Guide to Style only condones two punctuation marks, one inside and one outside quotes, when one is ! and the other is ?. If the sentence logically requires two exclamation points, question marks, or periods, eliminate one and put the other inside the quotes. – Peter Shor Jul 01 '14 at 03:18
  • That's just one of the style guides among many. – Kris Jul 01 '14 at 09:58
  • @Kris: yes, but you will note that I never said that what it recommends is "correct". However, considering the answers to the duplicate question, what it recommends does seem to be general practice. – Peter Shor Jul 01 '14 at 12:58