question forms

1. Yes/No questions

Yes/No questions are questions to which the answer is Yes or No
Look at these statements:

They are working hard.
They will be working hard.
They had worked hard.
They have been working hard.
They might have been working hard.

We make Yes/No questions by putting the subject, they, after the first part of the verb:

Are they working hard?
Will they be working hard?
Had they worked hard?
Have they been working hard?
bthey have been working hard?

2. Negatives

We make negatives by putting not after the first part of the verb:

They are not working hard
They will not be working hard
They had not worked hard
They have not been working hard
They might not have been working hard

In spoken English we often reduce not to n’t:

They aren’t working hard.
They won’t be working hard
They hadn’t been working hard
etc.

3. Questions and negatives with present simple and past simple forms:

For all verbs except be and have we use do/does and did with the base form of the verb to make Yes/No questions for the present simple and past simple forms:

They work hard >>> Do they work hard?
He works hard >>> Does he work hard?
They worked hard >>> Did they work hard?

For all verbs except be and have we make negatives by putting not after do/does and did for the present simple and past simple forms:

They work hard >>> They do not (don’t) work hard
He works hard >>> He does not (doesn’t) work hard
They worked hard >>> They did not (didn’t) work hard.

Here are the question forms and negative forms for the verb be in the present simple and past simple:

I am	(I’m)	Am I?	I am not	(I’m not)
He is	(he’s)	Is he?	He is not	(He’s not/He isn’t)
She is	(she’s)	Is she	She is not	(She’s not/She isn’t)
It is	(it’s)	Is it	It is not	(It’s not/It isn’t)
You are	(you’re)	Are you	You are not	(You’re not/You aren’t)
They are	(they’re)	Are they	They are not	(They’re not/They aren’t)

The verb have:
We make questions and negatives with have in two ways:

• normally we use do/does or did for questions :

Do you have plenty of time?
Does she have enough money?
Did they have any useful advice?

• and negatives:

I don’t have much time.
She doesn’t have any money.
They didn’t have any advice to offer.

•  … but we can make questions by putting have, has or had in front of the subject:

Have you plenty of time?
Had they any useful advice?

• … and we can make negatives by putting not or n’t after have, has or had:

We haven’t much time.
She hadn’t any money.
He hasn’t a sister called Liz, has he?

4.  Wh-questions

Wh-questions are questions which start with a question-asking word, either a Wh- word (what, when, where, which, who, whose, why) or questions with the word how.
Questions with: when, where, why:
We form wh-questions with these words by putting the question word in front of a Yes/No question:

Where are they working?
Why have they been working hard?
Where does he work?
Where will you go?
When did they arrive?
etc.

Questions with who, which and what (see Pronouns):

• Sometimes who or what takes the place of the subject (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases) of the clause:

Who gave you the chocolates? >>> Barbara gave me the chocolates.
Who is looking after the children? >>> My mother is looking after the children
Who mended the window? >>> My brother mended the window
Who could have done this? >>> Anybody could have done this.

• We use what in the same way:

What will happen?
What caused the accident?
What frightened the children?

When we ask who, which and what about the object of the verb (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases), we make questions in the way described in 1 and 3 above with who, which or what at the beginning of the clause:

He is seeing Joe tomorrow >>> Who is he seeing tomorrow?
I want a computer for my birthday >>> What do you want for your birthday?
She has brought some fruit for the picnic >>> What has she brought for the picnic?
They need a new car >>> What do they need?

We sometimes use which or what with a noun:

What subjects did you study at school?
What newspaper do you read?
Which newspaper do you read – the Times or the Guardian?
Which book do you want?

Questions with how:
We use how for many different questions:

How are you?
How do you make questions in English?
How long have you lived here?
How often do you go to the cinema?
How much is this dress?
How old are you?
How many people came to the meeting?

5. Questions with verbs and prepositions:

When we have a question with a verb and a preposition the preposition usually comes at the end of the clause:

I gave the money to my brother >>> Who did you give the money to?
She comes from Madrid >>> Where does she come from?
They were waiting for more than an hour >>> How long were they waiting for?

6. Other ways of asking questions:

We use a phrases like these in front of a statement to ask questions:

Do you know…? I wonder... Can you tell me …?

• We use these phrase with if for Yes/No questions:

This is the right house >>> Do you know if this is the right house?
Mr. Brown lives here >>> Do you know if Mr. Brown lives here?
Everyone will have read the book >>> I wonder if everyone will have read the book.

… or with wh-words:

I wonder how much this dress is.
Can you tell me where she comes from?
Do you know who lives here?

• We often use do you think…? after wh-words:

How much do you think this dress is?
Where do you think she comes from?
Who do you think lives here?

7. Negatives with the to-infinitive:

When we make a negative with the to-infinitive we put not in front of IB:

He told us not to make so much noise.
They were asked not to park in front of the house.

Wh-words are what, when, where, who, which, why and how.
We use clauses with a wh- word:

• In wh-questions (see Questions and Negatives):

What are you doing?
Who ate all the pies?
Why did you do that?

• after verbs of thinking:

know - understand - suppose - remember - forget - wonder

I know where you live.
She couldn’t remember who he was.
John wondered what was going to happen next.

NOTE: We also use clauses with if

I wonder if we’ll see Peter.
She couldn’t remember if she had posted the letter.
 

•  after verbs of saying:

ask - say - admit - argue - reply - agree - mention - explain - suggest

I asked what she wanted.
He tried to explain how the accident had happened.
She wouldn’t admit what she had done.
Did he say when he would come?

tell and some other verbs of saying must always have a direct object (see clauses, sentences and phrases):

tell - remind

We tried to tell them what they should do.
She reminded me where I had left the car.

• after some verbs of thinking and saying we use wh-words and the to-infinitive:

We didn’t know what to do.
We will ask when to set off.
Nobody told me what to do.
Can anyone suggest where to go for lunch?

NOTE: We use the to-infinitive:

-- When the subject of the to-infinitive is the same as the subject of the main verb:

He didn’t know what to do >>> He didn’t know what he should do
We will ask when to set off >>> We will ask when we should set off

-- When the subject of the to-infinitive is the same as the person spoken to:

Nobody told me what to do. >>> Nobody told me what I should do.
Can anyone suggest where to go for lunch? >>> Can anyone suggest [to us] where we should go for lunch.

• after some nouns to say more about the noun:

Is there any reason why I should stay?.
Do you remember the day when we went to Edinburgh.
That was the town where I grew up.

We often use a wh-clause after is:

I missed my bus. That’s why I was late.
This is where I live.
That’s what I thought.
Paris – that’s where we are going for our holidays.

We make questions by:

1: moving an auxiliary to the front of the clause:

Everybody is watching	>>	Is everybody watching?
They had worked hard	>>	Had they worked hard?
He's finished work	>>	Has he finished work?
Everybody had been working hard	>>	Had everybody been working hard?
He has been singing	>>	Has he been singing?
English is spoken all over the world	>>	Is English spoken all over the world?
The windows have been cleaned	>>	Have the windows been cleaned?

2: … or by moving a modal to the front of the clause:

They will come	>>	Will they come?
He might come	>>	Might he come?
They will have arrived by now	>>	Will they have arrived by now?
She would have been listening	>>	Would she have been listening?
The work will be finished soon	>>	Will the work be finished soon?
They might have been invited to the party	>>	Might they have been invited to the party?

3: The present simple and the past simple have no auxiliary. We make questions by adding the auxillary do/does for the present simple or did for the past simple:

They live here	>>	Do they live here?
John lives here	>>	Does John live here?