Which mark ends this? "Can you help me"

question mark. It asks something.

Which mark ends this? "She asked whether the shop was open"

full stop. It reports a question, so it's a statement.

Which is an exclamation (the sentence type)?

What an amazing view that is!. It starts with What and has a verb. "Close the door!" is a command.

11+ English · Topic explained

Question marks and exclamation marks

How can a sentence sound like a question, or a shout, on paper?

The big idea

A question mark ends a question; an exclamation mark ends a sentence full of strong feeling.

Picture it

Punctuation is your tone of voice on paper: a question mark lifts your voice, an exclamation mark turns up the volume.

Key words

question mark: Ends a sentence that asks something.
exclamation mark: Ends a sentence with strong feeling, or a command said forcefully.
exclamation: A sentence that starts with What or How and has a verb: What a mess you made!

Worked examples

1Warm-up
Where is my pencil?
- It asks something, so it ends with a question mark.
211+ standard
What a brilliant goal that was!
- Starts with What, has a verb (was), full of feeling.
- That's an exclamation, with an exclamation mark.
311+ standard
I wonder where my pencil is.
- It sounds like a question, but it's a statement.
- So it ends with a full stop.
411+ standard
How fast can you run? / How fast you ran!
- The same opening word, two different sentence types.
- A question asks; an exclamation exclaims.

The common mistake

The mistake

"I asked Dad if we could go?"

Instead

"I asked Dad if we could go."

Why: It reports a question but doesn't ask one, so it's a statement.

Where it comes up in the 11+

SPaG questions ask which mark ends a sentence, and whether it's a statement, question, command or exclamation.

The video

Video coming soon

We're making a short video that explains question marks and exclamation marks step by step. Until then, everything it covers is on this page.

Free printable