Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
I don't think you can list sentences in isolation and look for hard and fast rules. What's the context? Do you need any attribution at all?
Generally I suppose you'd use "asked" if the punctuation immediately preceding in a question mark; otherwise, "said."
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Very much this. Often the problem doesn't arise because you don't need the attribution. When it's clearly a question, ask it. The few instances where I have noticed that a clear question was "said" rather than "asked" it stood out as wrong. (But I have no idea how often it may have happened that I did not notice ... obviously.)