Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell question

hear itques·tion/'kwɛsʧən/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: A sentence that asks for information or a reply.

In a sentence: Can you answer this tricky question?

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as quetion or queston.

Same family: questioned, questioning, questioner, questionable, questionnaire. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Question” comes from Old French “question,” from Latin “quaestio,” meaning “a seeking” or “an inquiry,” related to the verb “quaerere,” to ask. It’s a cousin of words like “inquisition” and “request,” which also carry the idea of asking or seeking.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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