Placement of question mark when terminal quote has no question mark but sentence does [duplicate]

You should write

Are you sure she said "Spicy"?

See for example Jane Straus's Blue book of grammar and punctuation.


The question mark goes after the quotation mark. Unlike commas and periods, a question mark that is not part of the quoted text goes outside the quotation marks.

From 300 Days of Better Writing:

However, if your final punctuation is a question mark, semicolon, or colon, and if that punctuation mark is not part of the quotation, then it should go outside. For example: Did the boss say “fire everyone you can”?