A. Yes / No questions (closed questions)
Yes/No question are called closed question because they're only two possible responses: Yes or No.
Example:
| correct | incorrect | |
| Are elections next year? | ||
| Does he want to stay? | ||
| Have the boys eaten? | ||
| Can the dog swim? |
| question | response | |
| Am I your friend? | Yes. / Yes, you are. / Yes, you are my friend. | |
| Is this a good restaurant? | No. / No, it is not. / No, it is not a good restaurant. | |
| Are these islands Greek? | Yes. / Yes, they are. / Yes, these islands are Greek. | |
| Was his idea interesting? | No. / No, it wasn’t. / No, his idea was not interesting. | |
| Were they happy? | Yes. / Yes, they were. / Yes, they were happy. |
Note that the response can be short (Yes. / No.), or long: Yes or No followed by the subject and verb.
Use the verb BE with a preposition to ask Yes / No questions about a present or past location.
| question | response | |
| Am I at the correct location? | No. / No, you aren’t. | |
| Are the keys under the books? | No. / No, they are not. | |
| Was his house on an island? | Yes. / Yes, it was. | |
| Were the demonstrations in the center of town? | No. / No, they weren’t. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a current activity or situation. This requires the present progressive: BE + (verb+ing).
| question | response | |
| Am I going with you and Tom? | Yes. / Yes, you are. | |
| Is she working today? | No. / No, she isn’t. | |
| Are we seeing a play tomorrow? | Yes. / Yes, we are. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a past activity or situation. This requires the past progressive: WAS / WERE + (verb+ing).
| question | response | |
| Was it raining? | Yes. / Yes, it was. | |
| Were they playing? | No. / No, they weren’t. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question with the passive voice.
| question | response | |
| Is gold mined in Canada? | Yes. / Yes it is. | |
| Are flowers grown here? | No. / No, they are not. | |
| Was the book read? | Yes. / Yes, it was. |
Use the verb HAVE to ask if somebody has done something or if some action has taken place. Note that these Yes / No questions use the present perfect (HAVE + past participle).
| question | response | |
| Has your brother left? | No. / No, he hasn’t. | |
| Have you driven before? | Yes. / Yes, I have. | |
| Has the party started? | Yes. / Yes, it has. |
Use the verb DO to ask Yes / No questions in order to obtain facts about people, places, or things.
| question | response | |
| Do they smoke? | No. / No, they don’t. | |
| Does it rain here? | Yes. / Yes, it does. | |
| Did the key work? | No. / No, it didn’t. |
Use modal verbs to ask Yes / No questions about possibilities or uncertainties.
| question | response | |
| Can we stay? | Yes. / Yes, we can. / Yes, we can stay. | |
| Could this be true? | Yes. / Yes, it could (be true). | |
| Should they stop? | No. / No, they shouldn’t (stop). | |
| May I help you? | Yes. / Yes you may (help me). |
Remember: When asking Yes / No questions with DO or a modal verb, the main verb remains in the base form (without to).
| correct | incorrect | |
| Do you drink coffee? | ||
| Does she work here? | ||
| Can I go with you? | ||
| Should we email her? |
However, if there are two verbs that follow DO, the second verb remains in the infinitive (with to).
| correct | incorrect | |
| Do you want to drink coffee? | ||
| Does she like to work here? | ||
| Did you need to go home? |
Note that there are several ways to answer Yes / No questions, especially when using contractions.
| question | response | |||
| Is he busy? | No. | |||
| No, he isn’t. | ||||
| No, he’s not. | ||||
| No, he is not. | ||||
| No, he isn’t busy. | ||||
| No, he’s not busy. | ||||
| No, he is not busy. |
B. Wh- questions (open questions)
Wh- questions are so called because with the exception of the question word how, all the question words begin with the letters Wh. They are also called open questions
because the number of possible responses is limitless. This means they
must be answered with more information than just a simple “yes” or “no.”
Here are the Wh- English
question words:
who, whom
|
what
|
when
|
where
|
why
|
how
|
which
|
whose
|
Who and whom are used to obtain information about a person or people.
| question | response | |
| Who is at the door? | Tom is at the door. | |
| Who wants an apple? | I want an apple. | |
| Whom is he dating? (Who is he dating?) |
He is dating Anna. |
What is used to request information about somebody or something.
| question | response | |
| What is this? | This is a bird. | |
| What did she say? | She said to be quiet. | |
| What have they done? | They’ve broken the window. |
When is used to obtain information about the time period in which an action occurs.
| question | response | |
| When does Anna arrive? | She arrives at 10:30. | |
| When can I see you again? | I don’t know. | |
| When was the race? | The race was yesterday. |
Where is used to obtain information about the location of a person or thing.
| question | response | |
| Where does Natasha live? | She lives in Miami. | |
| Where were the keys? | The keys were in the car. | |
| Where have you been? | We have been at the bank. |
Why is used to obtain information about the reason something happens, or the reason somebody does something.
| question | response | |
| Why is the steet closed? | They are repairing it.. | |
| Why did Alex leave? | He had a meeting. | |
| Why haven’t you called? | I lost my cell phone. |
In informal American English, "How come?" is sometimes used in place of "Why?"
| Why is she late? | = | How come she’s late? |
| Why did he stay? | How come he stayed? | |
| Why can’t you go? | How come you can’t go? |
How is used to obtain information about the way something happens, or the manner or way somebody behaves or does something.
| question | response | |
| How does this work? | Push the red button. | |
| How was your mother? | She was much better. | |
| How has the weather been? | It’s been very rainy. | |
| How will he win the race? | By training every day. |
Which is used to obtain information in order to make a comparison between two or more similar things or people.
| question | response | |
| Which of these pens is the best? | The black one. | |
| Which author do you enjoy? | I enjoy reading Borges. | |
| Which river is longer, the Nile or the Amazon? | The Nile. | |
| Which street leads downtown? | The street on the left. |
Whose is used to obtain information about who something belongs to.
| question | response | |
| Whose book is on the table? | That’s Tom’s book. | |
| Whose idea was that? | It was her idea. | |
| Whose child is this that has a cough? | He is my child. |
Warning! Do not confuse whose with the contraction who’s (who is). In spoken English, these words sound exactly the same, but in writing they are very different. Learn more about who’s vs whose.
C. Question Tags
Tag questions (or question tags) turn a statement into a question. They
are often used for checking information that we think we know is true.
Usually if the main clause is positive, the question tag is negative, and if the main clause is negative, it's positive. For example: It's cold (positive), isn't it (negative)? And: It isn't cold (negative), is it (positive)?
auxiliary verb + subject
- We use the same auxiliary verb in the tag as in the main sentence. If there is no auxiliary verb, we use do.
- You live in Spain, don't you?
- If the auxiliary verb in the sentence is affirmative, the tag is negative.
- You're Spanish, aren't you?
- If the auxiliary verb in the sentence is negative, the tag is affirmative.
- You're not Spanish, are you?
Meaning
- We use tag questions to confirm or check information or ask for agreement.
- You want to come with me, don't you?
- You can swim, can't you?
- You don't know where the boss is, do you?
- This meal is horrible, isn't it?
- That film was fantastic, wasn't it?
- We use tag questions to check whether something is true.
- The meeting's tomorrow at 9am, isn't it?
- You won't go without me, will you?
Additional points
- In the present tense if the subject is I, the auxiliary changes to are or aren't.
- I'm sitting next to you, aren't I?
- With let's, the tag question is shall we.
- Let's go to the beach, shall we?
- With an imperative, the tag question is will you.
- Close the window, will you?
- We use an affirmative tag question after a sentence containing a negative word such as never, hardly, nobody.
- Nobody lives in this house, do they?
- You've never liked me, have you?
- When the subject is nothing, we use it in the tag question.
- Nothing bad happened, did it?
- When the subject is nobody, somebody, everybody, no one, someone or everyone, we use they in the tag.
- Nobody asked for me, did they?
- If the main verb in the sentence is have (not an auxiliary verb), it is more common to use do in the tag question.
- You have a Ferrari, don't you?
- With used to, we use didn't in the tag.
- You used to work here, didn't you?
- We can use affirmative tag questions after affirmative sentences to express a reaction such as surprise or interest.
- You're moving to Brazil, are you?
Pronunciation
- If we don't know the answer, it is a real question and we use a rising intonation with the tag question.
- You don't know where the boss is, do you? ↗
- If we know the answer and are just confirming the information we use a falling intonation with the tag question.
- That film was fantastic, wasn't it? ↘
Source:
http://www.eslbase.com/grammar/tag-questions
http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/tag-questions.html
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