interrogative sentence

A type of sentence that asks a question. (Compare with sentences that make a statement, deliver a command, or express an exclamation.)

In interrogative sentences, the subject is sometimes located in the predicate half of the sentence. An interrogative sentence ends with a question mark.

See also:

• Alternative Question
• Declarative Question
• Direct Question and Indirect Question
• Display Question
• Echo Question
• Embedded Question
• Exercise in Identifying Sentences by Function
• Hypophora
• Interrogative
• Inversion
• Leading Question
• Queclarative
• Rhetorical Question
• Structure-Dependency
• Tag Question
• Wh- Question
• Whimperative
• Yes-No Question

Examples:

• "How did it get so late so soon?"
  (Dr. Seuss)



• "Are my kids cute or do they make people uncomfortable?"
  (Donkey in Shrek Forever After, 2010)



• "Where do you want to go today?"
  (tagline from Microsoft's first global advertising campaign, 1996)



• "Now, who wants to save the world?"
  (Mermaid Man in SpongeBob SquarePants, 2000)



• "What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
  (Henry David Thoreau, letter to Mr. Blake, May 1860)



• "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"
  (Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)



• "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
  (riddle posed by the Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)



• Inigo Montoya: I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?
  Man in Black: Do you always begin conversations this way?
  (Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride, 1987)



• Cletus: [after showing Cargill a trick with his thumb] "You want to know how I do it?"
  Russ Cargill: "Four generations of inbreeding?"
  (The Simpsons Movie, 2007)



• "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
  (Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1595)



• "What if the dinosaurs come back while we're all asleep?"
  (Ariana Richards as Lex in Jurassic Park, 1993)



• "Hey, Cameron. You realize if we played by the rules right now we'd be in gym?"
  (Matthew Broderick as Ferris in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986)



• "If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?"
  (Vince Lombardi)



• "Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites, and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back three thousand years, haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?"
  (Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island. Doubleday, 1995)



• "In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the . . . Anyone? Anyone? . . the Great Depression, passed the . . . Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered? . . . raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something -d-o-o economics. 'Voodoo' economics."
  (Ben Stein in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986)



• "How do you spell relief?"
  (advertising slogan for Rolaids)



• "I did a radio interview; the DJ's first question was 'Who are you?' I had to think. Is this guy really deep, or did I drive to the wrong station?"
  (Mitch Hedberg)