Question Mark is a graphic sign that indicates doubt and is therefore used in direct questions. It appears at the end of a word, phrase or sentence, which thus has an ascending intonation, that is, they are characterized by the elevation of the voice when uttered.
Read too: What are the punctuation marks used in the Portuguese language?
Question Mark Summary
A question mark occurs at the end of a word, phrase or sentence to express a doubt.
It can be combined with the exclamation point or the ellipses.
In indirect questions, the full stop is used instead of the question mark.
Interrogative sentences are characterized by ascending intonation.
When to use a question mark?
We use the question mark at the end of a word, phrase or sentence to ask a direct question:
When?
What now, my friend?
Why not get some rest?
Attention! In indirect interrogative sentences, we use the full stop instead of the question mark:
She asked what you intend with this.
I want to know what that means.
Question mark with other punctuation marks
the question mark may appear with exclamation mark:
Do you want to talk to me?! This is new to me.
Thus, a question can occur at the same time as surprise, indignation, etc. are expressed. When you want to emphasize surprise rather than doubt, just put the exclamation point first:
Do you want to talk to me!? This is new to me.
Also, the question mark can follow the ellipsis:
Is he the same man who???
In this case, we have a question combined with a thought interruption.
Video lesson on the use of full stop, exclamation point and question mark
question mark in sentences
At direct interrogative phrases have ascending intonation, that is, marked by the elevation of the voice:
Do you know the drummer, singer and songwriter Wilson das Neves?
Has the book I sent you arrived yet?
What do you prefer? Strawberry or chocolate?
How can a person be so inhuman?
Me? I do not know anything.
Which? I didn't hear what you said.
Check out our podcast: 5 frequently asked questions of theretongue forportuguese
Exercises resolved on question mark
Question 01
(Unimonts)
THE FLOWER ON THE ASPHALT
Otto Lara Resende
I know this genocidal road, the beginning of Rio-Petrópolis. I doubt that a more murderous road or urban stretch is found than this one. There are so many accidents that an investigation is no longer opened. Anyone who crosses Avenida Brasil off the catwalk wants to die. If you die, no one cares. That lit candle appears, the body is covered with a sheet of newspaper and that's it. No more talking about it.
It would have been the fate of d. Creusa, if she didn't carry her own life in her bowels. On the lane that comes to Rio, twenty meters from the pedestrian overpass, d. Creusa was caught by a van. The driver tried to stop and couldn't. Then came another car, an Apollo, and the second hitch came. The same victim. Wounded, the womb opened by the ironwork, the miracle happened there.
D. Creusa was pregnant and died instantly. But on the asphalt, expelled with the placenta, a child appeared. Covering the mother in blue plastic, a student picked up the baby and took him to the side of the road. He had never seen a birth in his life. Among the onlookers, a woman tied the newborn's navel. A girl. Luckily, an ambulance was coming. After crying on the asphalt, the baby was taken to the hospital in Xerém.
D. Creusa, at the age of forty-four, was already a grandmother, mother of several children and a widow. Poor, human concentration of experience and pain, she was in a hurry to live. And it was a pile charged with life. Who should have been there was her daughter-in-law Marizete. But d. Creusa offered to go in her place because, pregnant, she wouldn't pay the ticket. With the money from the bus she could buy soap. She carried a black bag, with a red cardboard heart.
On the card was written: Thursday. It was the day of the hit-and-run. Apollo is the name of the second hit-and-run car. In mythology, Apollo is the symbol of victory over violence. The poet Pindar says that it is the god who puts the love of harmony in his heart. At the hospital, seven mothers competed for the privilege of breastfeeding the baby. Life is strong. And beautiful, Apollonian, after all. Why not?
From the book good morning to be born, Chronicles — Companhia das Letras, 1993.
The author ends his text with an interrogative statement. Its function in the text is
a) lead us to reflect and evaluate what he said.
b) make us doubt the relevance of what he said.
c) show us that, in Brazil, despite the negligence of the authorities with situations that involve the loss of human life, such authorities are still capable of achievements aimed at the common good.
d) make us understand that he himself doubts that the reflections he writes have relevance.
Resolution:
Alternative "d"
The text speaks of a “genocidal road”, where death became something banal and “nobody cares”. Then, it narrates the running over and death of d. Creusa, but also the birth of her daughter. In the end, the author concludes that “life is strong”, which contradicts the beginning of the text, in which life is seen as something fragile, as there are “so many accidents that no investigation is even opened”. Thus, when he asks “Why not?”, the author expresses a doubt, in a way that demonstrates an absence of certainty as to the relevance of his statements.
question 02
(Unimonts)
“How do you know, for example, if the remorse shown by an assassin is real or just a disguised gesture? How is it possible to look into his eyes, remember his crimes and still give the reprieve that will allow him to feel less suffocated by the weight of guilt?”
Look, 7/28/2010 (Adaptation)
check the only alternative that presents a CORRECT analysis of the cited fragment.
a) “How”, in both occurrences, is an interrogative adverb.
b) The adjectives “true” and “disguised” exercise, in the passage, an identical syntactic function.
c) The prayer “aim at their eyes”, in 2O period of the passage, it is classified as a direct objective noun.
d) The adverb “less” would become “menas”, if the adjective “suffocated” were feminine.
Resolution:
Alternative "a"
In the passage in question, "how" is a interrogative adverb. The adjectives “true” and “disguised” are, respectively, predicative and adjunct adnominal. Furthermore, “aim for their eyes” is a subjective substantive clause. Finally, the term “minus” is invariable and therefore does not have a feminine form.
by Warley Souza
grammar teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/ponto-de-interrogacao.htm
