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Questions in English

There are two types of questions in English: yes/no questions and Wh- questions. Yes/no questions require either a yes or no answer and involve changing the word order of the sentence by inverting the subject and verb. Wh- questions ask who, what, when, where, why, or how and involve placing the question word at the beginning of the sentence or inverting the subject and auxiliary verb. The document provides examples and rules for forming both yes/no and Wh- questions in English.

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58 views19 pages

Questions in English

There are two types of questions in English: yes/no questions and Wh- questions. Yes/no questions require either a yes or no answer and involve changing the word order of the sentence by inverting the subject and verb. Wh- questions ask who, what, when, where, why, or how and involve placing the question word at the beginning of the sentence or inverting the subject and auxiliary verb. The document provides examples and rules for forming both yes/no and Wh- questions in English.

Uploaded by

ivana22imi2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Questions in English

There are two types of


questions in English:

Yes/no questions

Wh questions
Yes/No questions

* Questions whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no".

* In English, a special word order (Verb Subject Object) is


used to form yes-no questions (the so called „inversion“)

* Examples:
Affirmative Yes or No Question
They are American Are they American?
She is nice Is she nice?
Yes/No questions
The rules

1.If the main verb of the sentence is "to


be", simply invert the subject and the
verb to be:

They are American. — Are they American?


They are nice. — Are they nice?
Yes/No questions
2. If the sentence includes a main verb and another or other
helping (auxiliary) verb(s), invert the subject and the (first)
helping (auxiliary) verb.

They are visiting Paris. — Are they visiting Paris?

She has done the housework. — Has she done the housework?

Nancy has been working all night long. — Has Nancy been
working all night long?

He will be reading the book. — Will he be reading the book?


Yes/No questions
3. If the sentence includes a verb which is not the verb "to be"
and doesn't include a helping (auxiliary) verb, the
transformation is more complex.

* a. If the verb is in the present tense, add either do or does


and put the main verb in its base form:

I like apples. — Do you like apples?


They go to a high school. — Do they go to a high school?

Nancy reads a lot. — Does Nancy read a lot?


He hates basketball. — Does he hate basketball?
Yes/No questions

* b. If the verb is in the past tense, add did and put the main
verb in its base form:

He discovered the truth. — Did he discover the truth?


She wrote a nice essay. — Did she write a nice essay?
They did the homework. — Did they do the homework?
Wh - questions

*Question words are also called wh


questions because they include the letters
'W' and 'H'.

Who, where, why, when, how, what, which,


whose, whom, what kind, what time, how
many, how much, how long, how often,
how far, how old, how come
Wh - questions

Asking questions

1. If you ask about the subject of the sentence, simply add the
question word at the beginning:

James writes good poems. — Who writes good poems?


Wh - questions
2.If you ask about the predicate of the sentence (the part of a
sentence which contains the verb and gives information about
the subject), there are three options:

a) If there is a helping (auxiliary) verb that precedes the main


verb ( for example: can, is, are, was, were, will, would...), add
the question word and invert the subject and the helping
(auxiliary) verb.

He can speak Chinese. — What can he speak?


They are leaving tonight. — When are they leaving?
Wh - questions

b) If you ask about the predicate and there is no


helping (auxiliary) verb and the verb is "to be",
simply add the question verb and invert the
subject and the verb.

The play was interesting. — How was the play?


Wh - questions

c) If there is no helping (auxiliary) verb in the


predicate and the main verb is not "to be", add
the auxiliary "do" in the appropriate form.

They go to the movies every Saturday. — Where


do they go every Saturday?
He wakes up early. — When does he wake up?
They sent a letter. — What did they send?
What and how questions

* Use how + adjectives such as old, tall, long to ask for more
detail
How old is he?

* Use what + kind of / sort of + noun to ask for information about


the noun

What kind of car dooes he drive?

* Also use what + colour / time / size to ask for specific detail

What colour are his eyes?


Practice

*Transform these sentences into a yes or no question


*He loves this town. * She wastes her money on jewelry.

*They like soccer. * He decided to leave his wife.

*She can drive a lorry.* She wakes up early.

*They are nice. * They should revise their lessons.

*They went to the swimming pool. * He was born in this


town.
Practice

*Does he love this town? * Does she waste her money on


jewelry?

*Do they like soccer? * Did he decide to leave his wife?

*Can she drive a lorry? * Does she wake up early?

*Are they nice? * Should they revise their


lessons?

*Did they go to the swimming pool?


* Was he born in this town?
Practice
* Choose the correct question words

1) ________do you live? - I live in London.


2) _____________'s that girl? - She's my sister.
3) ____________do you go to school? - By bus.
4) ______________do banks open? - At eight o'clock.
5) _____________are you wearing that coat? - Because it's hot!
Practice

1) Where do you live? - I live in London.


2) Who's that girl? - She's my sister.
3) How do you go to school? - By bus.
4) When do banks open? - At eight o'clock.
5) Why are you wearing that coat? - Because it's hot!
Practice
* Write question about the words in bold.

Example:
* He drank juice. - What did he drink?

* They went to Spain.


* He writes novels.
* Lacy likes soccer.
* The girls watched a serial.
* He discovered the truth.
Practice

*Where did they go?


*What does he write?
* What does she (Lacy) like?
* What did the girls watch?
*What did he discover?

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