Questions
A statement is a sentence that tells you something. A question is
a sentence that asks you something. A statement does not
require an answer. A question requires an answer.
stateme I like EnglishClub.
nt:
question Do you like EnglishClub? Yes
:
Why do you like Because
EnglishClub? ...
A written question in English always ends with a question mark: ?
Question Structure
The basic structure of a question is:
auxiliary + subje + main
verb ct verb
Look at these example sentences. They all have the auxiliary verb
before the subject:
auxiliary subjec main
verb t verb
Do you like Mary?
Are they playing football?
Will Anthon go to
y Tokyo?
Did he leave early?
Why did he leave early?
Whe will he return?
n
Exception! For the main verb be in Present Simple and Past
Simple, there is no auxiliary verb. Look at these example
sentences. They all have the main verb before the subject:
main subje
verb be ct
Am I wrong?
Are they Thai?
Was it hot
outside?
Wh were you late?
y
Questions are also known as "interrogatives".
Question Types
There are three basic question types:
Yes/No: the answer is "yes or no"
Question-word: the answer is "information"
Choice: the answer is "in the question"
We look at these in more detail below.
Yes/No questions
Sometimes the only answer that we need is yes or no. Look at
these examples:
auxiliary subject not main verb answer:
verb yes or no
Do you want dinner? Yes, I do.
Can you drive? No, I can't.
Has she not finished her work? Yes, she has.
Did they go home? No, they didn't.
Exception! Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
main subje
verb be ct
Is Anne French?
Was Ram at
home?
Question-word questions
Sometimes we want more than yes or no for an answer. When
asking for information, we usually place a question-word at the
beginning of the sentence. The question-word indicates the
information that we want, for
example: where (place), when (time), why (reason), who (person).
Look at these examples:
question auxiliary not subjec main answer:
word verb t verb information
Where do you live? In Paris.
When will we have lunch? At 1pm.
Why has n't Tara done it? Because she
can't.
Who(m) did she meet? She met Ram.
Who* has run out? Ati has run out.
Who** ran out? Ati ran out.
*When the question-word is who, it acts as the subject.
**In Present Simple and Past Simple tenses, there is no auxiliary
verb with who.
Exception. Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
question main subjec
word verb be t
Where is Bomba
y?
How was she?
Choice questions
Sometimes we give our listener a choice. We ask them to choose
between two possible answers. So their answer is (usually)
already in the question. Look at these examples:
auxiliary subject main verb o answer:
verb r in question
Do you want tea or coffee? Coffee, please.
Will we meet John or James? John.
Exception. Main verb be in Present Simple and Past Simple:
main subje O
verb be ct R
Is your whit or black
car e ?
Were they $15 or $50?
These pages show the three basic types of question. There are
other types of question, for example tag questions.