Should this have a question mark?

‘Who the fu—’

It’s definitely a question, but is cut off before being really asked. I've tried it with a question mark and, to me, it just looks coy.

Any suggestions?

Dee

Yes, I'm always baffled by this one. I think not, on the grounds that you wouldn't put a full stop if it wasn't a question. But I think it's a copy-editor's worry, not yours.

Emma

I agree with Emma, the em-dash takes care of it.

Oh good. That's what I was hoping.

Many thanks.

Dee

I'd go for YES, it should have a question mark, but cut it off with dots (too hung over to think of the name), ie

"Who the fu..?"

because without the question mark you don't read it with an inflection (God, is that the right word? really not with it this morning. It's 10:40 and I'm still in my dressing gown - bath running, stomach churning, what the hell was I drinking? And when I burp I can taste fish. I'm sure those mussels were off)

oops. Sort of wandered there.

Saw an unusual use of a question mark the other day. I would always follow a question mark with a capital, but these were running questions, something like>

Will I be big? tall? fat? or will I just be me?

(not a quote, just an example.)

Colin M

There are (rare) times when you can omit the question mark if it's a rhetorical question, as this effectively is. Neither way of punctuating is wrong, but I'd go for without, to catch the rhetorical inflection here.

I'd keep it how you've done it, Dee.

Cath

Thanks everyone. Sorry Colin, it looks like you're outvoted by the girls… hope you feel better by now.

Dee

Colin, yes, I think I'd be tempted to do that with your question-mark thing in some cases. It reads differently with capitals, doesn't it. More of a pause between the words.

Emma

How does it look with an exclamation mark?

Who the fu-!

Not sure really.

Does it depend whether the person is interrupted by someone else speaking? The trouble with dots instead of dash is that they suggest pause/tailing off rather than interruption and the expression loses the force.

Naomi

Yes, I think the choice of dots vs. dash here does depend on whether the speaker stops themselves, or is interrupted. Certainly that's the standard copy-editor's distinction. But I don't think either ends nowadays in a question mark (though I've a very strong image of it doing so, in old-fashioned letterpress printing)

Emma

What the fu-!

Who the fu-?

I would always put a question mark after a question even when it isn't intended as a question, IYSWIM. It just looks wrong to me otherwise.

If the sentence is cut off then I think there is an argument for not doing so, but I still probably would myself because I'm generally very anal about such things! ;-)

Deb

Oo! I seem to have wandered away from this… sorry about that, and thanks for the suggestions.

Deb, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about this if it was any other word – I just thought that, with a question mark, it looked too much as if I was being too coy to say ‘fuck’. I left it off in the end. If it ever gets close to being published, I’ll have it edited anyway.

By the way, what does IYSWIM mean?

Cheers

Dee

if you see what I mean

?

that's how I read it.

does LOL mean laugh out loud or lots of laughs?