Is this a question?

[DappledThings]

I've just paid an invoice and sent an email to the company to let them know and asking them to confirm when they've received the money.

The last sentence of my email being "Please can you confirm when you have received this payment."

I've gone for a full stop rather than a question mark because I am asking for a favour rather than asking a question. The Gmail auto function suggested a question mark but obviously I don't trust that.

Is it a question because I am asking them if they can do something so should be a question mark or, because a request is not a question, is my full stop correct?

It's a question because of the 'can you'. If you want it not to be a question, just say 'please confirm'.

Yes, I suppose so. But just "Please confirm" sounds so blunt. I can't find a way to make it a polite request without making it a question. This annoys me!

Your use of ‘can’ here is a modal verb-you are making a request, so I would not use a question mark.

I agree with Letseatgrandma

On a slightly different note - I thought the title of your thread was the question!

How about 'I'd appreciate it if...' or 'I'd be graceful if...'?

I thought the title of your thread was the question!
I was aiming for that confusion as a bit of a joke!

I think grammatically "can you confirm when you have received this payment" could be taken as a question. But it's probably not the question you are asking - because the answer would be something like "oh, yes, we have the ability to confirm when we have received this payment - we'll probably send you an email once we've seen it."

The "Please can you", in my view, turns it into a polite request, ie asking not if they have the ability to confirm but asking that they do confirm when they receive it. So, I think a question mark is unnecessary.

Difference between:

"Can you tap-dance?" answer: "yes, I learnt years ago"

and

"Please can you tap-dance" answer:

And I'm sure some pedants would say you should therefore be saying please would you... rather than can.

Thanks DadDadDad. I agree!

Incidentally I can tap dance, but would be reluctant to do so in front of any audience these days.

Incidentally I can tap dance, but would be reluctant to do so in front of any audience these days

@DappledThings - you're a bit like the definition of a gentleman: "someone who knows how to play the bagpipes, but chooses not to". I believe you can tap dance - no need to demonstrate...

@titchy would you be as graceful as OP the tap dancer? 😉

@DappledThings did they pay the invoice?

Requests usually sound more polite if you use an interrogative (Please can/could/will/would you do something?) rather than an imperative sentence (Please do something.), though "I would be be really grateful if you could ..." is a declarative structure that functions as a polite request. I tend to put a question mark at the end of a request which has the syntax of a question.

On the the other hand I sometimes put a question mark at the end of a declarative sentence if I want it to be understood as a question or a request, especially in a more informal style. You shouldn't put a question mark on an embedded or indirect question whether it functions as a question or a request. Eg, "I would like to ask if you could do something", or "I wonder if you could tell me something".

Also, context and the word "please" normally make it perfectly clear when a question is meant as a request.