Did you ever think why each and every children ask so many questions about everything goes around them?
Questioning everything will help you as well as it helps children.
Asking questions in English is a useful skill for almost any situation. There are many different types of questions in English grammar, each comes with its own rules.
In this lesson, we will study five essential types of English questions everyone should know along with grammar tips to form these questions correctly.
So let's dig in.
1) Yes/No Questions
Yes/No questions are the most basic type of a question. We use them to ask for a simple yes or no answer.
They usually begin with a verb, including auxılıary verbs (a "helping" verb that comes before the main verb) or modal verbs (such as can or would).
Structure of a yes/no questions is:
Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb + object/other information?
- It is windy today.
- Is it windy today?
- Yes it is windy today. / no it is not windy today.
- She is sad. - Is she sad?
- Boat is sinking. / Is the boat sinking?
- He can bake. / Can he bake?
However, if the sentence has no auxiliary verb and the main verb is not "to be", things are a bit getting different. In that case we'll need to put "do" or "does" at the beginning of the question.
- Alex plays football. / Does Alex play football?
- Alex played football. / Did Alex play football?
- Alex and his friend play football. / Do Alex and his friend play football?
Once you studied and had enough practice over questioning, you can skip the first step of starting with a sentence and go directly to forming questions.
- Are you ready?
- Have you seen my car keys?
- Did you say my name?
- Was Jeremy at the party yesterday?
- Were you talking to me?
- Have you ever been to Canada before?
- Will you call me tomorrow?
2) Wh Questions
These type of questions are mostly referred as "open questions" because the answer can essentially be anything.
These are the question words: who / what / when / where / how / why
- What? / Which? - to ask about things
- Where? - to ask about locations
- Who? - to ask about people
- When? - to ask about time
- Why? - to ask for the reason
- How? - to ask about the way things happen or done
- How many? / How much? / How often? - to ask about amount
When we form a question, we replace part of the sentence with one of these words.
We'll also usually need to invert the word order, but not alway.
Structure of a wh question is usually:
Wh question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb + object or other info?
- Tommy is playing basketball in the park.
Let's derive and form different types of wh questions from this example:
- Who is playing basketball in the park?
- Where is Tommy playing basketball?
- What is Tommy doing in the park?
Here are some more wh question examples:
- How was your dog learned to sit on command?
- Why have you been studying for so long?
- Where did you come from?
- How many times do I have to tell?
- What was you first impression?
3) Indirect Questions
A direct question is used to ask for certain information about something, such as:
- Which train goes to London?
- How much does this box of oranges cost?
However, somestimes a direct question may sound too blunt or unfriendly.
Especially if you are asking someone for help or when you don't know the person well enough.
With indirect questions, we aim to be more friendly and polite while asking someone for help or requesting something from that person.
To be able to do that, we attach phrases like "Could you plesae..." or "Do you know..." before the direct question.
For example:
- Where is the bathroom?
- Do you know where the bathroom is?
- Could you plesae tell me where the bathroom is?
Note: in Indirect questions the verb "is" moved to the end of the sentence.
4) Tag Questions
A tag question is simply a sentence with a question tag at the end.
It's used to check or confirm that you have understood something correctly.
- The train leaves at 9 o'clock right?
- You will call your mother, won't you?
- You were at the park last night, weren't you?
- She does love animals, doesn't she?
You can see that the structure of tag questions is very different than the others.
To form a tag question, we simply add the question tag using the opposite form of the verb/auxiliary or modal verb used in the sentence.
So the basic structure of a tag question is:
Sentence + opposite form of the same verb used in sentence + subject pronoun?
- It is raining now, isn't it?
- Your father isn't working today, is he?
- The students are visiting the museum, aren't they?
Notice that we used pronouns instead of subjects while forming the tag question.
When there is no auxiliary verb, we use "do" verb form in the question tag.
5) Negative Questions for Confirmation
Negative questions contain the word "not" or a negative verb contraction such as didn't (did not), weren't (were not), etc.
Similar to question tags, we use a negative question to confirm something we believe to be true:
- Didn't you hear the news? Sally won the marathon.
- Weren't you at the work? He had an accident.
- Haven't you heard of him? He was looking for you.
We also use a negative question to show our suprise about the things we expect to happen hasn't happened yet.
- Hasn't she arrived yet? It's been two hours since she left.
- Haven't you finished your homework yet? Tomorrow is the due.
Structure of a negative question:
Negative verb contraction + subject + main verb + other information?
Please note: "not" is a free word in sentences, that means in more formal settings, we intend to use the word "not" instead of a contraction.
- Has she not handed in her assignment?
- Did he not tell you the truth yet?
- Do they not arrived yet?
Here you can also practice more question examples:
- How often do you go to the dentist?
- How many brothers and sister have you got?
- What time can you pick me up?
- Where was Tim last night?
- Did you see John this morning?
- Why did you put that box there?
- What are you doing with the scissors?
- When will she make a decision?
- What time should I call you tomorrow?
- Who did Sandra invite to the party?
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