Here you can take a lesson on the topic: Question and its varieties in English. Different types of Questions in English.
There are three types of main sentences in English. These are affirmative, also called narrative, negative and interrogative. In this lesson we will take a closer look at interrogative sentence and its varieties.
English questions are quite different from Russian ones, especially in the order of words in a sentence. Most English questions are formed using inversion (rearranging words) and the use of auxiliary verbs.
There are 5 types of questions in English (general, special, alternative, dividing, to the subject), and each of them has its own characteristics. We will look at each of them in detail:
1. General question General Question is the most common and important type of question in the English language. Knowing the rules for composing a general question, you can easily create all the others.
The word order in a general question is as follows:
Auxiliary verb - Subject - Predicate - Object - Adverbial modifier? For example:
Do you have a cup of coffee every morning? - Do you drink a cup of coffee every morning?
The main members of interrogative sentences are auxiliary verb, subject and predicate, since their presence is mandatory. And the remaining members of the sentence may be omitted from the sentence. For example:
Does he swim? - He is swimming?
Do you like ice-cream? - Do you like ice cream?
If a sentence uses modal verb(all except have to and need to) or the verb to be, then the help of an additional auxiliary verb is not required, since these verbs themselves become auxiliary and are placed in front of the subject. The auxiliary verb and the subject then become obligatory parts of the sentence, and the rest can be omitted depending on the context. Let's look at examples:
Are you a manager? - Are you a manager?
Can you sing well? -Can you sing well?
May I come in? - May I come in?
Must he sign his name here? - Should he sign here?
Would you like another piece of cake? - Would you like another piece of cake?
The general question can also be negative. For example:
Don't you like this film? - Don't you like this film?
Isn't she adorable? - Isn't she adorable?
Can't we meet another day? - Could we meet another day?
We have considered many questions in the present simple tense, but how to ask Questions about past actions or future ones? Knowing the order of words in a general question, this will not be difficult. Questions in the past and future tense differ from questions in the present only by auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary verb of the past tense is did, and the auxiliary verb of the future is will. The verbs did and will do not change for persons or numbers. Let's look at a few examples:
Do you like skating? - Do you like skating?
Did you like skating? - Did you like skating?
Will you like skating? - Do you like ice skating?
Does he ask you many questions? - Does he ask you a lot of questions?
Did he ask you many questions? - Did he ask you a lot of questions?
Will he ask you many questions? - Will he ask you a lot of questions?
All general questions require short answers: Yes or no. Short answers in English directly depend on the auxiliary verb, used in the question. Let's look at examples:
Does she get on your nerves? -Yes, she does. -No, she doesn't. -Does she get on your nerves? -Yes. -No.
Did you get a good mark for this exam? -Yes, I did. -No, I didn't." -Did you get a good grade for this exam? -Yes. -No.
Are you Jared's sister? -Yes, I am. -No, I"m not. -Are you Jared's sister? -Yes. -No.
Is he the oldest child in the family? -Yes, he is. -No, he isn't." - Is he the eldest child in the family? - Yes. - No.
Can you call me later? -Yes, I can. -No, I can't. -Can you call me later? -Yes. -No.
May I come in? -Yes, you may. -No, you may not. - Can I come in? -Yes. -No.
2. Special question (Special Question) is a question starting with special question words: who? (who?) what? (what?) where? (where?) when? (when?) how much? (how many?) whose? (whose?), etc. It is also popularly called Wh-question.
Knowing the rules for composing general questions in English, you can easily create a special question. After all, the main rule of special questions is to ask question word(what, who, why) before the auxiliary verb, and the rest of the question remains the same as in the general question. Let's look at an example and compare:
Did you fight with him again? -Did you fight with him again?
Why did you fight with him again? - Why did you fight with him again?
Where did you fight with him again? -Where did you fight with him again?
When did you fight with him again? - When did you fight with him again?
Sometimes items for which a special question is asked, fall out of the general question. For example:
Do you speak French? - Do you speak french?
What languages do you speak? - What languages do you speak?
Does he like watching TV in the evening? - Does he like to watch TV in the evening?
What does he like watching in the evening? - What does he like to watch in the evening?
When does he like watching TV? - When does he like to watch TV?
In sentences in modal verbs or with to be, question words are placed again at the beginning, before these verbs. For example:
How can I help you? - How can I help you?
What is your name? -What is your name?/What is your name?
Where are you from? - Where you're from?
Why should I help him? - Why should I help him?
Which food is your favorite? - What is your favorite food?
Often in English special questions there are prepositions associated with the main verb. As a rule, these prepositions are put at the very end of the sentence. For example:
What are you looking for? -What are you looking for?
Who does he take after? - Who does he look like? / Who does he look like?
Who is she talking to? - Who is she talking to?
What are they talking about? - What are they talking about?
3. Alternative question Alternative Question is a type of question that asks you to make a choice. An alternative question always contains the conjunction or (or). The peculiarity of this question is that the answer is already present in the question; you just need to choose from two given objects, persons, qualities, etc. Let's look at an example:
Do you like apricots or peaches? - Do you like apricots or peaches?
Is he from England or from Wales? - Is he from England or from Wales?
Can she sing or dance? -Can she sing or dance?
As can be seen from the examples, the construction of alternative questions differs little from general ones, except that a conjunction is added or (or) and an additional part for selection. The additional part is usually shortened and can be expressed in one word or a short phrase. For example:
Is she a lawyer or a judge? - Is she a lawyer or a judge?
Did he go to his place or to his friend's? - Did he go to his place or to his friend?
Will you be in office at 5pm or at home? - Will you be in the office by 5 pm or at home?
An alternative question may be similar to a special one. For example:
What are you going to order: pizza or sushi? - What are you going to order: pizza or sushi?
When are having a holiday: in June or in July? - When will you have your holidays: in June or July?
4. Separated question(Tag Question) is a type of question expressing doubt, surprise or confirmation of what was said. A disjunctive question is formed by adding to a normal affirmative sentence a short phrase with an auxiliary verb, casting doubt on the entire sentence. The Russian equivalent of a dividing question is "isn't it?"
In English, in order to correctly compose this short dividing part, you need to carefully study the sentence itself. If the sentence is affirmative, then the dividing part will be negative, and vice versa, if the sentence is negative, then the dividing part will be affirmative. The dividing question is formed using auxiliary verb, used in a sentence, and a pronoun that could replace the subject of that sentence. Let's look at an example:
John is a good student, isn't he? - John is a good student, isn't he? (the sentence is affirmative, which means the separating part is negative)
Let's try to create a few more dividing questions:
Linda is the most beautiful girl in the class, isn't she? - Linda is the most beautiful girl in the class, isn't she?
Jamie's parents aren't from Spain, are they? - Jamie's parents are not from Spain, are they?
We aren't going to London tomorrow, are we? - We're not going to go to London tomorrow, are we?
It will be the best summer in their life, won't (will not) it? - This will be the best summer of their life, won't it?
He can climb any tree, can't he? - He can climb any tree, can't he?
We already know that all English verbs, with the exception of to be and modal verbs, build questions using the auxiliary verbs do, does or did(if we are talking about the past). For example:
You don't like your neighbors, do you? - You don't like your neighbors, do you?
He likes his friend's sister, doesn't he? - He loves his friend's sister, doesn't he?
They found a new babysitter, didn't they? - They found a new nanny, didn't they?
As can be seen from the examples, all dividing questions are asked with the aim of expressing doubt, surprise, or finding confirmation of what was said.
5. Question to the subject(Subject Question) is a special category of questions in which you do not need to change direct word order, those. it remains the same as in an ordinary declarative sentence. Thus, this is the only type of question where there is no need for auxiliary verbs and no inversion (rearrangement of sentence members) occurs. For example:
Who came to the party? - Who came to the party?
What happened at the end? - What happened in the end?
How many students arrived to the lesson?- How many students came to the lesson?
Often questions to the subject begin with question words who?, what?, how many/how much? The meaning of the question to the subject lies in the fact that interrogative pronouns in it perform the role of the subject. For example:
Who is talking to you? -Who is talking to you? (direct word order in a sentence: Subject - Predicate - Object)
Thus, we got acquainted with all types of English questions and examined each of them separately. From the lesson we can conclude that the most important thing is to learn how to compose ordinary narrative sentences and general questions for them, then all other categories of English sentences will be much easier to compose.
There are five types of questions in English. Let's take a closer look at each of them together. Each of the five types of interrogative sentences has its own word order, which you need to remember in order to learn how to ask questions correctly.
1. Question to the subject
In a sentence of this type, we maintain direct word order, leaving all members of the sentence in their places. You just need to find the subject in the sentence and replace it with a suitable question word, i.e. a question to which the subject answers: either Who? -who?, or What? -What? A question to the subject does not require the use of an auxiliary verb in the present and past tense. You just need to remember that the verb-predicate in the present tense takes the third person singular form.
Google shortcode
What forced you to do this? – What forced you to do this?
What made you worry? -What made you worry?
Who works in this office? – Who works in this office?
Who traveled to the south? – Who traveled south?
Who likes swimming? – who likes to swim?
2. General question
In this case, the question is asked to the entire sentence, there is no question word in this case, and the answer is always unambiguous: either “yes” or “no.” Questions of this type are also known in English as “yes / no question”. To translate such a sentence from Russian into English, you need to remember the following word order: Auxiliary verb (depending on the number of the subject and what grammatical tense the sentence belongs to) – subject – predicate – minor members.
Do you often go shopping? – Yes, I do – Do you go shopping often? - Yes
Does she like studying? - No, she doesn’t - Does she like studying? - No
Is this film interesting? – yes, it is – is this film interesting? - Yes
Are you hungry? - no, I am not - are you hungry? - No
Notice how easy it is to pose a general question to English declarative sentences. You just need to find the subject, choose the appropriate auxiliary verb for it and put it at the beginning of the sentence.
We live in a comfortable flat – Do we live in a comfortable flat?
He studies at a college – Does he study at a college?
They usually come here - Do they usually come here?
This student is very prospective – is this student very prospective?
My favorite colors are red and white – are my favorite colors red and white?
3. Alternative question
This question can be asked to each member of the sentence and you need to follow the same word order as when asking a general question, but with one feature - the sentence implies a choice between two persons, objects, actions or qualities and requires the use of the conjunction “or”. Let's pose an alternative question to the following sentence: We finished cooking dinner at 2 o’clock - we finished cooking dinner at 2 o’clock.
Did we finish cooking dinner at 2 or 3 o’clock? – did we finish cooking dinner at 2 or 3 o’clock?
Did we finish cooking or eating dinner 2 o’clock? – Have we finished cooking or is there lunch at 2 o’clock?
4. Special question
A special question is asked to any member of an English sentence and requires the use of a question word, and the word order is also reversed: in the first place (When? What? Where? etc.) is an auxiliary verb (depending on the number of the subject and on the fact that what grammatical tense does the sentence belong to) – subject – predicate – minor members.
When does your lesson begin? – When does your lesson start?
What are you doing here? - What are you doing here?
When did you buy this vase? – When did you buy this vase?
5. Dividing question
The presence of such a question in the English language allows you to unobtrusively ask about things of interest, and in addition express either doubt, surprise, or confirm what was said. A similar phrase is translated into Russian as “isn’t it? , is not it?". A similar question is divided into two parts: the first part is the sentence itself without changing the word order, the second part is a question consisting only of an auxiliary verb related to the grammatical tense of the sentence and a subject. If the sentence is affirmative, then the second part - the question - will be negative, and if the sentence is negative, then, on the contrary, the question will not contain a negation.
Your sister is a student, isn’t she? – your sister is a student, isn’t she?
You are not busy, are you? – you are not busy, are you?
He goes to bed very late, does not he? — he goes to bed very late, right?
She doesn’t eat meat, does she? – She doesn’t eat meat, does she?
Knowing the rules, you can easily correctly compose any interrogative sentence. 
To the question Create 5 types of questions in English. given by the author dewdrop the best answer is five types:
Wh- questions or Special questions (questions to the subject);
General questions (general questions);
Disjunctive questions or otherwise question tags;
Alternative questions;
Questions with prepositions at the end.
Wh- questions or Special questions
The first type is special questions; in English they sound like Wh-questions or Special questions. Sometimes they are also called questions to the subject. A special question always begins with a question word, for example, what, who, when, why, where (What? Who? When? Why? Where?).
When did you come home? (When you came home?)
Why don't you believe me? (Why you do not believe me?)
All these questions begin with WH, which is why special questions are called Wh- questions. Question words in this type of questions also include how, how much, how long (How? How much? How long?).
How much money should we pay? (How much money should we pay?)
If a special question begins with who/what, then the word order in the question is direct, since the question word replaces the subject.
Who is your doctor? (Who's your doctor?)
In this case, who/what is considered as the 3rd person, singular. number.
If the question word in a special question does not replace the subject, then an auxiliary verb is placed after it (do/does, will(shall), did, have/has, etc.).
Compare:
Who is standing there? (Who is standing there?)
Who did you talk with? (With whom did you talk?)
General questions
They are called general because the answer to such a question can be either “yes” or “no”.
The second name for general questions is yes/no questions. A common question begins with an auxiliary verb. After this, the subject or subject of the statement, then the semantic verb. The minor members of the sentence go to the end.
Do you see me? (Can you see me?) – No, I don’t.
Have you been there? (Were you there?) – Yes, I have.
Will you be here when I'm gone? (Will you be here when I leave?) – Yes, I will.
Thus, the answer to a general question contains "yes" or "no" and sometimes an auxiliary verb.
But! The verb to be in the present and past tense does not require auxiliary verbs.
Is he your friend? (Is he your friend?) - No, he isn’t.
Disjunctive questions
The second name is question tags (questions with a tail). A tag is a kind of tail that is placed after the entire sentence. These questions are based on the type of denial - affirmation, and vice versa.
The second part of the sentence must correspond to what is included in the predicate.
You are ok, aren’t you? (You're okay, aren't you?)
He knows my real name, doesn’t he? (He knows my real name, doesn't he?)
These people don’t know me, do they? (These people don't know me, do they?)
Tag or tail can be translated in different ways. Basically, possible translations: right? is not it? right? But in the Russian translation it is possible not to use the tail by inserting the word “after all” in the middle of the sentence.
We are young, aren’t we? (Aren't we young?)
The emphasis in such questions should fall on the second part.
Alternative questions
A distinctive feature of such questions is the presence of the conjunction “or” (or). This question cannot be answered in monosyllables; a choice must be made.
Are you going to go there by plane or by car? (Are you going to get there by plane or by car?) – I’m going to go there by plane.
Is she your wife or not? (Is she your wife or not?) - She is my wife.
Questions with prepositions at the end
They might not be separated into a separate category, but their composition differs in some features.
Place a preposition at the end if the semantic verb has a special preposition. For example, to look for (look for something), look at (see
Marina Marina
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Why did you give this person so much unnecessary information??? and why did you translate special questions as a question to the subject? This is a special question, and it can begin with the words how much, for example. in short, so much unnecessary stuff has been written.
Today you will learn how to write questions in English. I will try to teach this material in an extremely accessible and understandable form, taking into account the variety of problems that students often make. A practical task with answers will help you consolidate and test your knowledge. Writing questions is usually difficult for English language learners. Declarative sentences, as a rule, do not cause problems - you just need to remember what form the verb takes - Vs, Ves, V2, V3 and place it after the subject: “He likes tea”, “I have been waiting for you for half an hour." (I've been waiting for you for half an hour).
But composing questions requires understanding the structure of an English sentence in general, and the question in particular: auxiliary or modal verb + subject + semantic verb:“Does he like tea?”, “Have you been waiting for me for half an hour.” You should always remember about auxiliary verbs, which are the key to correctly formed questions. (Let me remind you that the name “auxiliary” speaks for itself - these are verbs that help form interrogative and negative English sentences).
Stages of writing questions in English
- So, how to write questions in English? Before asking ANY question in English, find the verb in such a question, think about what kind of verb it is - the verb to be, the modal verb (can, must...), the main verb (main verb).
- determine the time question. If you feel that you will easily get confused with the timing of a question, then make the question an affirmative sentence. For example: “Does your husband like mushrooms? “Your husband loves mushrooms.” This is The Present Indefinite - he loves mushrooms in general. Here are 9 example sentences - 9 English verb tenses:
- “Your husband likes mushrooms, doesn’t he?” - present indefinite tense.
- "Who broke the printer last week?" - past indefinite tense.
- “When will you come to me?” - future indefinite tense (The Future Simple).
- “Are the children swimming or eating now?” - present continuous tense.
- “What were your colleagues doing at 5 pm yesterday?” - The Past Continuous.
- “Will they be working at the library tomorrow from 3 to 5?” - future continuous tense (The Future Continuous)
- "He's already written a letter, hasn't he?" - present perfect tense (The Present Perfect).
- “Did she leave before you called?” - past perfect tense.
- “Will you translate the article by 6 o’clock?” - future perfect tense (The Future Perfect).
- After you have found the verb and determined the tense of the sentence, start building a question taking into account some important points: a) sentences with the verb to be (example 1), modal verbs (example 2), the verb to have (example 3) form questions by rearrangement of these verbs in first place, before the subject; b) other questions usually require auxiliary verbs (example 4).
Example 1 (to be):
"Are you hungry?" To be hungry - in English it contains the verb to be. This means that we will make up questions based on the material already studied about the verb to be, namely: we put the verb to be in first place, without adding anything. You only need to pay attention to the time, for example: “Are you hungry?” - present tense, which means we need such - am, is, are - “Are you hungry?” “Were you hungry?” - past tense, which means we use - was, were - “Were you hungry?”
Example 2 (modal verbs):
“Can you find this program?” “Can” is a modal verb (can), so we compose questions in the same way as with the verb to be - moving the modal verb to 1st place - “Can you find this program?”
Example 3 (to have):
"Does he have a car?" I repeat: the verb to have comes first, as do modal verbs, as does the verb to be - “Has he a car? / Has he got a car?”
Example 4 (main verbs):
"How much does it cost?". To translate this question, I follow my own algorithm outlined above: 1. “cost” - main verb; 2. time - The Present Simple (how much does it cost in general, always); 3. since in this question there is no verb to be, a modal verb or a verb to have, you need to choose an auxiliary verb - this is “does” (because it is used before “he, she, it” in The Present Simple). It turns out: “How much does it cost?” It seems that everything is simple.
These step-by-step instructions will help you translate any question, under 2 conditions:
- You understand what English verb tenses are and how to use them;
- You understand (more details about the types of questions in the next post).
Exercise.
Translate these questions into English. (If you need help determining the tense, see the explanation above - I have written down all the tenses for these sentences.) Determine the type of question yourself (if you remember).
- Your husband loves mushrooms, doesn't he?
- Who broke our printer last week?
- When will you come to me?
- Are your children swimming or eating now?
- What were your colleagues doing yesterday at 5 pm?
- Will they be working at the library tomorrow from 3 to 5?
- He already wrote the letter, didn't he?
- Did she leave before you called?
- Will you have translated the article by 6 pm?
- You've been waiting for me for half an hour, aren't you?
- Your husband likes mushrooms, doesn’t he? (Disjunctive question)
- Who broke our printer last week? (Special question - to the subject)
- When will you come to me? (Special question)
- Are your children swimming or eating now? (Alternative question)
- What were your colleagues doing yesterday at 5 o’clock in the evening? (Special question)
- Will they be working in the library from 3 till 5? (General question)
- He has written a letter, hasn’t he? (Disjunctive question)
- Had she left before you called? (General question)
- Will you have translated the article by 6 p.m.? (General question)
- You have been waiting for me for half an hour, haven’t you? (Disjunctive question)
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86 thoughts on “ How to write questions in English?”
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Hello, Sveta!
Here are the questions you need:
1. How long have you been to Brazil?
2. What is the weather like in Brazil? (to be in Present Indefinite)
3. What have you been doing there?
4. Where are you now? (to be in Present Indefinite)
5. What are you going to do after dinner?For each proposal on the issue. Help me please!
Like many big cities, London has problems with traffic and
pollution. Over 1,000,000 people a day use the London Underground.
People who want to drive into the city center pay some money, but there are still too many cars in the streets. The air isn’t clean, but it is
cleaner than it was 100 years ago.
For me, the best thing about London is the parks. There are five in
the city centre.
London consists of four main parts: The City of London, The
City of Westminster, The West End, The East End. The most
beautiful part of London is the West End. The best hotels, restaurants
and shops are located here. The oldest part of London is the City,
which is the commercial and trading center of London. The East End
is the working part of London, its industrial centre. And Westminster
is the aristocratic official part of London, its administrative centre.
help me write 5 questions for this text
Greetings from Brazil! I’ve been here since Monday and I am having a fantastic time at the Rio Carnival. I love it here. The weather is wonderful and the atmosphere of the carnival is amazing.
I’ve been dancing every night in the streets to the samba music. I’ve taken lots of photos of the amazing costumes to show you when I get back. Right now I’m lying on the beach relaxing. Later I’m having dinner at a local restaurant and then I’m going back to the party.
help translate the questions: what was the name of Epimetheus's wife? Who brought the box to the house of Pandora and Epimetheus? Why was Pandora interested in the box? What was in the box? What did Pandora release from the box? What was left in the box? How many times did Pandora open the box?
A question that requires a "YES" or "NO" answer. In our case - “Do they go to Sochi every summer? - Yes. - No.”
In Russian, to ask this question, we simply change the intonation, but the word order remains the same.
In English, to ask a general question, you need to place the auxiliary verb first in the sentence.
So, let's look at our proposal and determine the time. Present Simple. The auxiliary verbs of this tense are “do” and “does”. For the pronoun "they" - "do".
We get: “Do they go to Sochi every summer?”
Answer: “Yes, they do” - “Yes.” "No, they don't" - "No."
Note! In English there are "strong verbs" that do not require an auxiliary verb. These are almost all modal verbs (“can”, “may”, “must”, etc.) and the verb “to be” (or rather its forms).
2) Alternative question. Alternative Question
A matter of choice. I’ll show you with our example: “Do they or WE go to Sochi every summer?”, “Do they DRIVE or FLY to Sochi every summer?”, “Do they go to Sochi or Murmansk every summer?”, “They go to Sochi every SUMMER or WINTER?
Conclusion: we can set an alternative to each member of the sentence. In this case, we always use the conjunction “or” - “or”. Remember it!
Let's summarize... To ask an alternative question, we bring forward the auxiliary verb (as in the general question) and do not forget to ask an alternative to any member of the sentence using the conjunction "or".
We get: “Do we or they go to Sochi every summer?”
or: "Do they go to Sochi or Murmansk every summer?"
3) Dividing question. Tag-question
Question with a “tail”)) We translate the tail “Isn’t it?”
A dividing question is constructed using the following formula:
our sentence unchanged + comma + tail?
What kind of tail is this? It consists of 2 words: an auxiliary verb and a pronoun.
Let me explain with our example:
"They go to Sochi every summer."
First of all, it is necessary to accurately determine the time.. In our case - Present Simple.. auxiliary verbs "Do"/"Does".. "They" - "Do". Let's look at our sentence again and determine whether it is negative or affirmative.. Affirmative means our tail will be negative! If the sentence were negative, the auxiliary verb would become positive, i.e. without the negative particle "not".
We complete our sentence with the pronoun from the 1st part - “they”. Attention! If in the first part of the sentence the subject is a noun, replace it with a pronoun (for example, “a table” - “it”, “books” - “they”, “Mom” - “she”).
They go to Sochi every summer, don't they?
(They go to Sochi every summer, don't they?)
Note! If the role of subject and predicate is “I am”, in the tail we write “...., aren”t I?”
4) Special question. Special Question
A question in which the speaker requests specific information. (“Where do they go every summer?”, “Who goes to Sochi every summer?”, “When do they go to Sochi?”).
A special question is often called a "Wh-Question". This is due to the fact that almost all question words begin with the letter combination “Wh”.
For example:
what? - What? Which?
where? - Where? Where?
why? - Why?
which? - which?
who? - Who?
how? - How?
when? - When?
Special question formula:
Question words + general question?
"Where do they go to every summer?"
"When do they go to Sochi?"
Special question to the subject.
"Who goes to Sochi every summer?"
We will consider this type of special question separately, since it has a different structure:
Who/What + rewrite the sentence without a subject.
Attention!!! The most important thing is Who/what - 3rd person, singular! Do you remember that in the Present Simple in this case the ending “-s/-es” is added to the verb!
We get: "Who goes to Sochi every summer?"