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Anonymous Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Question about a Question

Is "Guess who's coming to dinner" a question or a command?

Would you say:

Guess who's coming to dinner?

or

Guess who's coming to dinner.

Is the question mark appropriate punctation for the phrase?

thanks
  

Top answer

Could be a question, a command or a rhetorical statement.

— Nona the brit

  • Could be a question, a command or a rhetorical statement.
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3 Answers
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Could be a question, a command or a rhetorical statement.
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Hi Anonymous,

Imagine two people (A and B) are having a conversation and A says to B:

Guess who's coming to dinner.

This means a third person who is familiar to both A and B is going to eat with them. While A is aware of the identity, B is unaware so A wants B to guess who it is.

You can write it with an exclamation too:

Guess who's coming to
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"Guess who's coming to dinner." is a command. Use a period.
"Who's coming to dinner?" is a question. Use a question mark.

The confusion occurs because the command contains an imbedded question.

Here's a similar case. In this case an exclamation is imbedded in a command.

"Look how red I've gotten in the sun." (Command. Use a period.)
"How red I've
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