Asking Yes/No questions.
To form yes/no questions with the verb To Be in the Present Simple and Past
Simple Tense or a modal verb, we invert the word order of a positive sentence
Is she a student? Yes she is
Were they English, No they weren’t
Can you swim? Yes, I can
To make questions in the present simple and the past simple we use the
auxiliary do/does for the present simple or did for the past simple:
Do you study English?
Did he play tennis?
Questions with the Present Continuous and the Past Continuous, Present
Perfect, Past Perfect and other compounds tenses we invert the order of the
subject and auxiliary verb
What are you doing?
Was she watching TV?
Where has he gone?
Had they eaten before he arrived?
How long have you lived in Paris?
Short answers
We repeat the auxiliary to give a short answer
Will you come tomorrow? Yes, I will
Do you know the way? Yes, I do
Does she speak Chinese? No, she doesn’t
Have you eaten lobster? Yes, I have
Wh-questions
When we want a more detailed answer we use the question words known as “wh-
question words”. They ask about…..
What: information about something // repetition or confirmation
How: manner // condition or quality
How much: quantity (uncountable)
How many: quantity (countable
How long: length (time or space)
How far: distance
How old: age
How often: frequency
When: time
Where: in or at what place or position
Which: choice
Who: what or which person or people (subject)
Whom: what or which person or people (object)
Why: reason / what...for
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Questions with these question words follow the same rules apply to the other
type of questions.
If there is an auxiliary or modal verb, that verb is used to form the question and
if there is no auxiliary verb, we use do.
Where is the car?
Who has just arrived?
How did you get there?
When does your sister get back?
How much does it cost?
Where are you going this weekend?
Subject/Object questions
Subject questions:
This type of question is used when you want to know who or what does something, the
question word is the subject of the verb and the order of the sentence is:
wh- word+ verb+ object
Who broke the window?
What happened yesterday?
Who drives the car?
Object questions:
This type of question is used when you want to know what someone did, or whom,
where or when, the question word is the object of the verb and we need an auxiliary
verb, the order of the sentence is.
wh- word+ auxiliary verb (do, be, have….)+subject +main verb
Who does Peter love? Peter loves Mary
Compare these two sentences:
Who does Peter love? Peter loves Mary (Peter is the subject of the verb).
Who loves Peter? Mary loves Peter (“who” is the subject and Peter is the object)
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