Question marks

[Bakkerbaard]

Another one I was just reminded of, though I've been meaning to ask someone this for quite a while now.
Obviously I know when to use a question mark, I'm not that sad, but in the case of a put-down sort of sentence, it becomes guesswork to me.

"Yeah, you would know that, wouldn't you."

Obviously, the sentence looks like a question, which would need a question mark. But the tone in my head, and as I want it to be in the reader's head, is dismissive. It's not a question. The sentence is not supposed to do that little upward twang a question has at the end.
Yet a lot of time I see it suggested as a correction.

How would I punctuate a dismissive remark like that?

 

[Naomasa298]

A question mark does not automatically imply a rising tone. People will read it to themselves as a falling tone, if the intention is clear that it is a put down.

 

[THUNDAIR]

I looked into adding punctuation to a rhetorical question, and the suggestion at the time was to use an exclamation for emphasis.

 

[Louanne Learning]

"Yeah, you would know that, wouldn't you."

My vote is for using a question mark, just because it is a question.

 

[Hammer]

I would consider an interrobang...

Depends what, and for whom, you are writing, and it depends whether there is a house style, but the interrobang is quite widely used; "Yeah, you would know that, wouldn't you?!"

 

[Naomasa298]

Maybe indicate that it falls in tone.

Yeah, you would know that, wouldn't you¿

 

[Bakkerbaard]

People will read it to themselves as a falling tone, if the intention is clear that it is a put down.

The intention, as well as the tone, are clear, I believe. My problem is more that the question mark undoes that.

the suggestion at the time was to use an exclamation for emphasis.

But the exclamation suggests a raised voice, which is not the case here.

I would consider an interrobang...

Those are reserved for when I have no other way of showing shocked surprise.
I first saw an interrobang in a Donald Duck comic when I was too young to be concerned with any kind of punctuation, so I spent ages looking at that picture trying to figure out how to pronounce "?!"

Maybe indicate that it falls in tone.

Yeah, you would know that, wouldn't you¿

And now it's Spanish.
I'm gonna save that for when I achieve international success. ;o)

 

[Naomasa298]

My problem is more that the question mark undoes that.

As I said before, it doesn't.

 

[Bakkerbaard]

As I said before, it doesn't.

I've been staring at it, and my head keeps turning it into a real question.
I'm just gonna cut off "wouldn't you" and never look at it again.