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English 1b3 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Question within a greater sentence

What are the rules around including a question within a greater sentence?

For instance, is a below acceptable? If not, is b how we would punctuate it?

a. You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you, so I will need to find a place for you to stay?

b. You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you? So I will need to find a place for you to stay.
  

Top answer

You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you, so I will need to find a place for you to stay.

— Enoon

  • You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you, so I will need to find a place for you to stay.
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9 Answers
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You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you, so I will need to find a place for you to stay.
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Really? Are you sure we don't need a question mark in there? The first part of the sentence is a question.
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That's how I would do it. Your mileage may vary. Some might make it, "You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you? so I will need to find a place for you to stay." But I see the question mark as end-of-sentence, so that looks stupid to me.
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enoonthat looks stupid to me.
I agree Emotion: smile

I'm interested to hear what others think.
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If I had to write that, I'd probably write it thus, as two sentences.

b. You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you? So I will need to find a place for you to stay.


But really, I see such such utterances are more characteristic of spoken English.


Clive
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I would write it as You arrive tomorrow morning, don't you? So I will need to find a place for you to stay.
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I think it depends on whether "don't you" is seen as a true question or more of a filler. If a true question then it needs a question mark and a new sentence needs to follow, otherwise commas would do.
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Thanks for all your answers. I think Clive makes a good point - it more characteristic of speech.
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English 1b3Thanks for all your answers. I think Clive makes a good point - it more characteristic of speech.
Right, but ideally it should be possible to transcribe speech. Having said that, punctuating transcriptions of real-life speech, where people often don't speak in full sentences, is kind of an inexact science.
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