A sentence that wants something back
Read these two.
“The soup is hot.”
“Is the soup hot?”
The first one hands you a fact. You read it and you are done.
The second one stops and waits. It wants you to say yes or no. That is an asking sentence.
How to spot one
Read the sentence and notice what it wants from you.
| Sentence | What it wants | Kind of sentence |
|---|---|---|
| My boots are by the door. | nothing back | telling |
| Where are my boots? | an answer | asking |
| Ava fed the cat. | nothing back | telling |
| Did you feed the cat? | an answer | asking |
The mark at the end
An asking sentence ends with a question mark. It looks like this: ?
The question mark takes the place of the period. A sentence never gets both.
An asking sentence still begins with a capital letter, the same as any other sentence.
“Where are my boots?”
Listen to your voice
Say these two out loud and listen to what your voice does at the end.
“You are ready.”
“Are you ready?”
On the second one your voice goes up. That rise is what the question mark shows on paper.
Words to know
- asking sentence: a sentence that asks for an answer
- question mark: the mark that ends an asking sentence
- question: what older students call an asking sentence
Your turn
Say telling or asking.
- “The bus is late.”
- “Is the bus late?”
- “Who took my pencil?”
- “Leo took my pencil.”
Check your answers
- Telling.
- Asking.
- Asking.
- Telling.
Remember
- An asking sentence wants an answer.
- It ends with a question mark, never a period.
- It still starts with a capital letter.