I normally stick with "he said" and "she said" to keep things simple and transparent to the reader but wondering about questions. Is "she asked" and "he asked" appropriate when a character asks a question? Can "he said" and "she said" be okay attributives for questions?
Answer
'Asked' is generally not considered a said-bookism by most editors and readers AFAIK. In fact, I always use it when a character is asking a question. Because something like "'But how can that be?' he said." sounds wrong to me.
An aside related to comments on @LaurenIpsum 's answer: I only use the following:
- said - always
- asked - always for questions
- yelled, called - only when the scene won't work if the character delivers his line at normal volume
- interjected - when one character cuts off another mid sentence, but even then, rarely.
Edit: I also use "replied" occasionally.
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