English Grammar By Vahid Afra
Questions
Basically, there are two types of questions.
1-Yes/No questions
A: Information
• Are you ready?
B: Making a suggestion
• Shall we eat out tonight?
C: Requesting
• Can you write the address down for me, please?
• Will you save me a seat?
D: Offering:
• Can I help you?
E: Inviting
• Would you like to come to the party?
F: Asking permission:
• May I use your phone?
English Grammar By Vahid Afra
2- Information questions
Begin with a question word and are used to ask for information. The question
words include:
Who, what, which, where, when, why, how and whose.
*Most information questions begin with a question word +an auxiliary verb
+the subject.
• Where have you put the map?
• When can we travel safely?
• What do you think?
• Why do you have so many scars?
*Who and what can be the subject of a question. The word order is the same as
in a statement.
-Who and what can be the object of a question. An auxiliary verb comes before
the subject.
Subject Object
Who called you? Who did you call?
Who is helping you? Who are you helping?
Who suspects you? Who do you suspect?
Who hurt you so badly? Who did you hurt so badly?
What hit you? What did you hit?
What killed him? What did he kill?
Who messed up the kitchen?
Who does your hair?
What qualifies me to be a future stewardess?
English Grammar By Vahid Afra
Ross, what is taking you so long?
-Who is usually followed by a singular verb even if the speaker is asking about
more than one person
• Who is coming to dinner tonight? Ann, bob and Al.
• Who wants to come with me? We do.
*In questions beginning with who, what, where and which, prepositions (to , from
,with, about…) usually go at the end.
• Who are you waiting for?
• What are you thinking about?
• Where is she from?
• Which car are you interested in?
• What are you afraid of?
• What did you step on?
*What is something/somebody like?
Is used when asking someone to describe or give their opinion of a person or thing.
Here like is preposition not a main verb.
• What's their house like?
• What are Dan's parents like?
• What’s the weather like?
*How long does/did/will it take to do something
• How long does it take to learn English?
-How long does/did/will it take somebody to do something
• How long did it take you to design the website?
English Grammar By Vahid Afra
*Which is used for a small number of possibilities, but what is more general
• What color do you like?
• Which color do you prefer, green or red?
• Which one is worse: to live like a monster or to die as a good man?
*Question phrases with what and how:
• How often do you go to the gym?
• How old is your sister?
• How long will the meeting last?
• How long is the film?
• How long is her hair?
• How far is it to the station?
• How many children have you got?
• How much money did you spend?
• How soon can you finish the report?
• How high is the Eiffel Tower/mountain/the wave?
• How high can you jump?
• How tall is Mike/ that building/the giraffe?
• How late are we?
• What time is your friend arriving?
• What color is your toothbrush?
• What kind of/ What sort of/what type of car do you like?
• What does Ed look like?
• What do you weigh?
• How much do you weigh, Ross?
• How heavy is the parcel (=how much does it weigh?)?
• What does it smell like? It smells like rotten eggs
• What does pumpkin taste like?