interrogative

In grammar, a word or sentence making an enquiry, as in ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’.

In English, a question normally has inverted word order (verb before subject: ‘Is that so?’) and may contain an interrogative pronoun (who, whom, which, what) or adverb (where, when, how, why). An interrogative sentence should end with a question mark.

Some sentences may sound interrogative but their meaning is exclamatory (‘Was I upset!’ ‘Do you mind!’). Some sentences are interrogative though they appear to be in the form of a statement rather than a question (‘These gentlemen are the visitors?’).