How should this sentence be punctuated, please?

"What did Jonny see in her, Lucy asked herself for the millionth time?"

In particular, where should the question mark be.

TIA.

Deb

"What did Jonny see in her?" Lucy asked herself etc etc

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think it's confusing using speech marks for thoughts. There should be no need, surely?

Deb

If you don't want to use the speech marks, perhaps you need to drop the speech tag - Lucy asked herself. That leaves the problem of for the millionth time appearing after the logical position for the question mark.

If you're in close third person, and are happy to imply the 'thinking', how about:

For the millionth time, what did Jonny see in her?

It should be evident that it's Lucy asking herself.

Chris

Yes, I'd go with Chris.

Technically, it should be

What did Jonny see in her, Lucy asked herself for the millionth time.

with no ?, because the sentence as a whole isn't a question.

(c.f. Did Lucy ask herself what Jonny saw in her? where the overall sentence is a question)

But I agree that it always seems odd. I have seen

What did Jonny see in her? she asked herself for the millionth time.

which is logical and lots of people are happy with, but which is incorrect - the lower-case 'she' shows it's all one sentence, so the ? shouldn't be there. The question is less obvious in your exampele, Deb, because Lucy is capitalised.

Oh, brilliant, everyone, and esp Emma. Nik P told me the correct version, and despite being surprised I went with that and submitted my short story to the comp!

This is one of those tricky little things which is quite hard to work out, isn't it?

Thank you all!

Deb

<Added>

By which I mean that he said the same as Emma, and I had to submit the story before reading the comments here.

Glad you got the right answer in the end Deb.

What did Jonny see in her? she asked herself for the millionth time. which is logical and lots of people are happy with, but which is incorrect - the lower-case 'she' shows it's all one sentence, so the ? shouldn't be there. The question is less obvious in your exampele, Deb, because Lucy is capitalised.

She's right. In my opinion it should be -- What did Jonny see in her? she asked the question to herself for the millionth time.


<Added>

Maybe I'm wrong but I think It gives more emphasis if the question is specific.

Thanks Sharley. And Mox!

Did anyone notice my unintentional implication that I consider Emma to be the ultimate authority? Which I do.

Deb

I did!

But I'll admit to being over-awed myself!

LoL Deb and Manusha

she asked the question to herself

I see what you're saying, Mox - and there are all sorts of ways you could rearrange the sentence - but in English you don't ask a question "to" something or someone.

You do ask someone "to" do something. And it feels a little old-fashioned, perhaps, these days, but it is correct to ask a question "of" someone:

I asked myself a question and my subconscious answered.

I asked a question of myself, and my subconscious answered me.

I asked myself to be patient, and I was rewarded.

I asked patience of myself, and I was rewarded

There is a slightly different idiom, which is maybe the one you're thinking of:

I asked a lot of myself, and in the end it was too much for me to cope with

Emma