QUESTION FORMS

 

REPORTED SPEECH: QUESTIONS

 

Link to + info on Reported Speech previously on this blog.

QUESTION TAGS BASICS

 

+ on QUESTIONS TAGS on a previous post in this blog.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUBJECT & OBJECT QUESTIONS

Remember the majority of questions are object ones, so in English you'll have to use an auxiliary verb and follow the pattern. [ENGLISH QUESTION PATTERN]

Subject questions are less common, they ask about who has done the action and they are the same as a typical question in Spanish, with no auxiliary verb needed.

ENGLISH QUESTION PATTERN

ENGLISH QUESTION PATTERN

(Qword) + AUX.VB + subject + MAIN VERB +... ...(prep)?                                           DO (simple tenses) + infinitive                                           BE (continuous tenses) + -ing form                                           BE (passive tenses) + past participle                                           HAVE (perfect tenses) + past participle                                           HAVE (possession) + GOT                                           MODAL verbs + infinitive

Only exception, when asking for a subject. No auxiliary verb is needed: Who wrote “Hamlet”? Shakespeare did. How many people came to the party? 20 people came.

- Check you know all the question words at this previous post on this blog HERE.

BASIC QUESTIONS: PERSONAL INFO, EVERYDAY & TIME Qs

Bringing together a collection of basic everyday questions on personal info, habits and time.

QUESTIONS WITH 'WHAT...'?

BASIC INTERROGATIVE & PASSIVE STRUCTURES

ASKING FOR INFO

DIRECT vs INDIRECT QUESTIONS

Compare how direct and indirect questions change.

- THEY NO LONGER HAVE A QUESTION STRUCTURE.
- WH-QUESTIONS KEEP THE Q-WORD.
- YES/NO QUESTIONS, BEGIN WITH IF/WHETHER

PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE IN AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE & QUESTIONS

A basic chart of how affirmative, negative & questions structures work in English for the Present, Past and Future.

PREPOSITIONS IN QUESTIONS

Remember that in interrogative structures in English, prepositions go at the end of the sentence. Complete information about how to make questions in English on this previous post HERE.

ENGLISH AUXILIARY VERBS

Remember English needs auxiliary verbs to make the negative and interrogative forms. Here are the three main auxiliary verbs in English: BE for the Continuous/Progressive and Passive forms, HAVE for the Perfect forms and DO for the Simple forms. BE and HAVE are used also in the affirmative of those forms. Other auxiliary verbs are MODAL verbs.

NEGATIVE & QUESTION FORMATION IN ENGLISH

Two charts to show you the structures of negative sentences and questions in English. Remember that in English you need AUXILIARY VERBS to make negative sentences and questions. Each auxiliary verb is different depending on the VERB TENSE the sentence is. Check below in each chart with the auxiliary verb forms of each verb tense and the examples.

1) NEGATIVES

2) QUESTIONS

More about making questions HERE.

THE VERB 'TO DO'

The verb TO DO is an ordinary verb with its own meaning as many others, but on the other hand its an auxiliary verb for the SIMPLE TENSES (PRESENT AND PAST). So as an ordinary verb it works just like any other and as an auxiliary we use it to make questions and negative sentences in those two tenses. Check these two charts.

Video-lesson about DO:

QUESTIONS WITH HOW... ? (HOW MUCH? vs HOW MANY?)

In this chart you can see the different possible combinations of HOW to ask questions:
HOW OFTEN...? = to ask about the frequency you do an activity
HOW FAR...? = to ask for distances
HOW MUCH...? = to ask for prices or uncountable quantities.
HOW MANY...? = to ask for countable quantities.
HOW FAST...? = to ask about speed
HOW OLD...? = to ask about ages.
HOW WELL...? = to ask about abilities.

To distinguish the confusing use of HOW MUCH vs HOW MANY, look at the chart below:

QUESTION TAGS

A question tag is a grammatical structure in which a statement or an imperative is turned into a question, by adding an interrogative fragment (the "tag") at its end.

Most of the times you're not really asking because you really know the answer already. You're just making sure that it is the answer you expect. 

As in the example on the photo:

This is a tag question, isn't it?

(It is a tag question, you only want to make sure that it is).

This is how they work:

The statement can be affirmative or negative, the question tag is in the opposite: if affirmative statement, negative tag and viceversa: if negative statement, affirmative tag. Always use the corresponding personal pronoun in a question tag.

Possible answers:

To make the correct question tag, you must always use the corresponding auxiliary verb according to the statement, this depends on the statement's verb tense form or if a modal verb is used. Look at the examples below:

Statement examples:

- Simple tenses will use DO.

- Continuous tenses will use BE.

- Perfect tenses will use HAVE.

- with modal verbs, the same modal verb is used.

To summarise:

Link to

- GENERAL INFO ON QUESTION TAGS.

- MIXED EXAMPLES OF QUESTION TAGS

- QUESTION-TAG EXERCISE QUIZ ON ENGLISH CLUB.
- QUESTION TAG EXERCISES ON PERFECT ENGLISH
- QUESTION TAG EXERCISES ON WORLD ENGLISH
- QUESTION TAG EXERCISES ON ESL LOUNGE