Which of the following sentences requires a question mark?: The doorbell just rang Do you think anyone will answer the door
1 Answer
Suppose we considered the first sentence. Let's say two people were talking to each other.
A: Did the doorbell just ring?
B: The doorbell just rang.
You can see that B is answering A. Therefore, the B sentence couldn't be a question as-written. You almost never use a question to answer something (unless you're being sarcastic and you give a rhetorical question).
An alternate, sarcastic version:
A: Did the doorbell just ring?
B: Do you think the doorbell just rang? (The doorbell's quite loud, you know. Of course you heard it!)
Okay, now let's consider the second sentence.
A: Do you think anyone will answer the door?
B: I hope so. The doorbell just rang.
So you should see that B has just answered A, and therefore, sentence A works as a question.
Or the sarcastic version:
A: Do you think anyone will answer the door?
B: What do you think? The doorbell just rang, didn't it? Unless someone played ding-dong ditch, surely someone is at the door.
