Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining whether to provide a factual answer to a user's query. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a set of query patterns associated with a particular fact. A subset of natural language query patterns can be identified from the set of query patterns. A likelihood that a query corresponding to at least one of the query patterns from the set of query patterns is a fact-seeking query can be determined based at least in part on comparing a first query count associated with the subset of natural language query patterns with a second query count associated with the set of query patterns. The likelihood can be provided as a signal for ranking search results.