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Which punctuation mark should be used before the second part of the alternative question? Should it be a colon or a comma?

Eg:

  • What do you like best: pears or apples?
    or
  • What do you like best, pears or apples?

Which of these two question has the correct punctuation?

All grammar manuals I looked through say nothing about using a colon in alternative questions.

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    I'd choose a comma here, because colons in general usages look rather clunky IMO. However, 'What do you like best, pears, bananas, oranges or apples?' needs the colon (or dash) for clarity.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 16, 2020 at 14:12
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    Either one works. Nobody cares about punctuation except teachers and editors.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 2, 2023 at 19:13
  • Essentially, the suggested disjunctive expression is a parenthetical. The matrix (interrogative) clause is independent, grammatically complete. So the usual types of offsetting punctuation may be considered. A comma, a dash, and brackets all work here (zero punctuation is not an option). // But the colon also works here as it introduces the list of choices. But as I said, colons look clunky and are usually best avoided.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 1 at 22:57

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That's possibly because both are reasonably legible to most English speakers. In other words, whatever you prefer!

To expand on that ...

In the context you've given - a choice of two things - either works: it really doesn't matter.

If you had more than two choices - say apples, pears and bananas - it really needs the colon to be idiomatic; and if any of your options has a conjunction in (for example: Which would you prefer: strawberries and cream; apples and cinnamon; or prunes and custard?) you should use semicolons rather than commas to separate the list items, so that there is no ambiguity (otherwise it's conceivable that somebody will misunderstand that each option is a pair of things).

In speaking, of course, you can't see the semicolons, so you have to pause slightly longer, and be sure not to pause during each item ;o)

Also, some people - myself included - will tap on a finger for each option, as if counting them. This non-verbal part to the communication helps to distinguish the items even if each is a compound thing.

EDIT: a couple of pages found in moments with a quick search via Google ...

A page on “The semicolon” from an “Improve Your Writing” grammar tutorial hosted by U. of Bristol shows use of the semicolon where list items themselves contain a comma, which isn't the problem here of course, and contains the wonderful phrase “In a situation such as this, only the mighty semicolon can unravel the mess.” They don't include the conjunction, but ...

... this page, a “Grammar guide” on “Using the semi-colon and colon” (sic) hosted by U. of Leicester does contain multiple list examples all containing a conjunction after the final semicolon ... because where else would you put it?

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  • Thank you, Will. But which one is more preferable?
    – Victor
    Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 2:11
  • But to tell the the truth, I'm more interested in the written scheme of such alternative questions with the exact indication of all the punctuation marks before the explanatory part, than the oral form of its utterance.
    – Victor
    Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 2:40
  • You don't see the semicolons or hear them because they violate common practice. You also do not use a semicolon before a coordinating conjunction such as "and."
    – KarlG
    Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 7:31
  • If you wish to appease people like @KarlG, you must be sure to take the long-winded approach, and say: "Option 1: strawberries and cream. Option 2: apples and cinnamon. Option 3: prunes and custard. Which would you prefer?"
    – Will Crawford
    Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 11:05
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    @KarlG No, the reason you don’t hear semicolons is that they are punctuation marks and do not have an audible equivalent. You don’t hear any punctuation. Semicolons in lists where individual items include conjunctions (or commas) also do not violate common practice—they are common practice, and they are advocated by style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style (paragraph 6.60) when ambiguity might otherwise arise. In the example given there, the three list items are parallel enough that ambiguity is probably not very likely; but there are many other cases where it is.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 11:37

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