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Wwbwb9636 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

? mark for this statement/question?

Would the following phrase end in a . or in a ?

It is not that I am afraid to die, it is that if I do die, who will love you as I do
  

Top answer

Hello, wwbwb - and welcome to English Forums. You have set for yourself a conundrum which should be resolved by recasting the utterance: It is not that I am afraid to die ; it is that if I do die, I do not know who will love you as I do . It is not that I am afraid to die .

— Mister Micawber

  • Hello, wwbwb - and welcome to English Forums.
  • You have set for yourself a conundrum which should be resolved by recasting the utterance: It is not that I am afraid to die ; it is that if I do die, I do not know who will love you as I do .
  • It is not that I am afraid to die .
  • But if I do die, who will love you as I do ?
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4 Answers
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Hello, wwbwb - and welcome to English Forums.

You have set for yourself a conundrum which should be resolved by recasting the utterance:

It is not that I am afraid to die; it is that if I do die, I do not know who will love you as I do.

It is not that I am afraid to die. But if I do die, who will love you as I do?
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A 3rd choice comes to mind:

It is not that I am afraid to die. But if I died, who would love you as I do?
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I wouldn't recommend it for academic writing, but if for some reason (e.g. a stylistic concern) you wanted to keep your original sentence as is, ending it with a question mark would raise fewer eyebrows than ending it with a period.
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