What is a rhetorical question?
A rhetorical question is a question that doesn’t need or want an answer. It is used to make a point.
Common rhetorical questions
| Are you crazy? | You think I haven’t thought of that? |
| Why am I here? | Could you listen to me for just one second? |
| What’s the point? | Is that the best you can do? |
| There’s more? | |
Rhetorical tag questions
| You’re pretty stupid, aren’t you? | It’s not the end of the world, is it? |
| That’s not right, is it? | So let’s say there’s a guy who likes you, okay? |
Rhetorical questions using ‘do’
| Do you know who I saw? | Don’t you think you’ve had enough? |
| Do you really think that is a good idea? | Don’t you think you’re wasting your time? |
| Don’t you have anything better to do? | Didn’t you know I was once world champion at this? |
Rhetorical questions offering obvious choices
| He offered you a million dollars. What can you do except say yes? | She’s beautiful, rich, funny, intelligent and wants to marry him. Why wouldn’t he? |
| She pointed a gun at me. What could I do except do what she said? | The job was to get paid to go on holiday. Who wouldn’t want that? |
| He was going to kill him. What could the police do except shoot? | |