5 types of questions in English. English as music

I'm in such a musical mood today! what if we compare English to music? The English language is just as melodic Do re mi fa sol la si...

English as music

• to- subject(that is, the one who performs the action);
• re- this is a predicate(verb, action);
• mi- addition or circumstance;
• F- auxiliary verbs(do, does, did... or linking verb);
• salt- question words(what? where? where? how? why? how much?);
• la- or (or);
• si(What, Who in questions specifically to the subject, who or what did the action).

For example:

I like music. - Do re mi;
I am listening to music.

Are you listening to music? - fa do re mi;
Do you like music? - fa do re mi.

English questions may sound different. I suggest listening to 5 different melodies - types of English questions.

General question (YesNo Questions) - Fa do re mi

As its name suggests, these are questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.” Let's look at an example of this "melody" in the most common English verb tenses.

• Present Simple: Do you listen to music every day?
• Past Simple: Did you listen to music yesterday ?
• Future Simple: Will you listen to music tomorrow ?
• Present Continuous: Are you listening to music now?
• : Were you listening to music yesterday at 5 p.m. ?
• Present Perfect: Have you ever listened to Hawaiian music?

Special Question. Special question (Wh question)

Let's listen - Sol fa do re mi

• What do you listen to every day?
• When did you listen to that music?
• Where will you listen to music?
• Why are you listening to music?
• How were you listening to music?
• How many symphonies have you already listened to?

Alternative question

This is a type of question that asks for an alternative, a choice.

For example, " Do you like classical or popular music? »

Listen to one of the most common variations of this type of verb - Fa do re mi la mi

• Do you like classical or popular music?

Tag question

This is a question with a “tail”, when we say some phrase containing information that we are almost sure of and ask the interlocutor for confirmation “isn’t it? isn't it?"

You love classical music, don't you?

This is the only type of question whose main part has direct word order.

The tail contains an auxiliary verb and a subject, but if the main part of the sentence is positive, the tail must be negative, and vice versa, if the main part is negative, the tail will be positive.

Do re mi fa do

You like classical music, don’t you?
You are listening to Mozart music now, aren’t you?
You haven’t heard it before, have you?

Subject question

This melody does not like auxiliary verbs (do, does, did). And of course there is no note here TO, because it is about this note (about the subject) that we ask through the note SI(Who or What did the action). Here's a note SI and becomes the subject.

Si re mi

Who likes classical music?
What inspired him to compose that Symphony?

Please note, since the note F(purple, indicating the auxiliary verbs do, does, did) is missing in this melody, verb (blue note re) is placed immediately in the required form in accordance with grammatical tense, as in an affirmative sentence.

Who called? Past tense. Who called? The ending -ed was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Past Simple.

Who calls you every day? Who calls you every day? The ending -s was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Present Simple in the 3rd person singular (as with the pronouns he, she or it).

Now make 10 affirmative sentences in different tenses and ask all types of questions to each!

This way, the melodies will be firmly fixed in your memory, and you will not be out of tune.

We have made a short video lesson for you on this topic to better reinforce the material.

Enjoy watching.

Write in the comments if you liked the video?

Happy English to you!

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Hello dear readers. Today I have prepared for you an introductory lesson on the topic - types of questions in English. After studying the material, you will become familiar with the 5 types of questions that are distinguished in English grammar. We will dwell on each of them in more detail in the following lessons. And now our goal is to introduce you in general terms to each of the 5 types of questions, explain their meaning, features and design. Types of Questions in English Constructing interrogative sentences is a very important topic for learning any language. After all, our speech mainly consists of questions and answers. I want to say right away that the construction of interrogative sentences in English is much more complicated than in Russian. In Russian, asking a question is simply a matter of changing your intonation. In English, to ask a question you need to change not only intonation, but also the order of words in a sentence, and very often there is a need to use auxiliary words.

In order to clearly explain the features of each type, I will first give examples and then explain their essence. I advise you to memorize the construction of 5 types of questions.

5 types of questions in English

So, in the English language there are 5 main types of questions: general question, special question, question about the subject and its definition, alternative question, dividing question. We will start the lesson with a general question, because... it is fundamental. Having learned the construction of a general question, it will be easy for you to understand the other types.

1. General question

As you can see, the general question is asked about the entire sentence, and you can answer it with just one word - yes or no (no). That is why it is called general.

To correctly pose a general question, you must use an auxiliary verb:

• do→ for I, you, we, they
• does→ for he, she, it
• did→ for past tense.

So, in the first place we put the auxiliary verb, and then the declarative sentence remains unchanged. Example:

• Narrative sentence: You speak English. → we add an auxiliary verb to the first place, and we get →
• General question: Do do you speak English?

If a verb acts as a predicate in a sentence to be (am, is, are, was, were - its forms), or modal verbs can (could), may (might), must, shall (should), will (would), then they are placed in first place as auxiliary. Example:

• Narrative sentence: I can help you. → we take it out modal verb to first place, and we get →
• General question: Can I help you?

Let's sum it up! The outline of general questions looks like this:
Auxiliary Verb → Subject → Predicate → other members of the sentence.

Video on the topic: General and alternative questions in English

2. Alternative question

As you may have noticed, an alternative question is a question that asks the answerer to choose between two homogeneous members of the sentence (a pen - a pencil, teacher - doctor, red - green, Moscow - Minsk, playing chess - watching TV). These homogeneous members of a sentence can be expressed by additions, circumstances, definitions, the nominal part of a compound predicate, etc.

The alternative question is very easy to recognize by the conjunction or, thanks to which an alternative is proposed. An alternative question is usually given a complete answer.

Please note that the alternative question is practically no different from the general question, with the exception of the obligatory presence of the conjunction or.

3. Special question

Specific questions in English are asked to obtain additional information. A special question word always comes first:

• what?- What? Which?
• why?- Why?
• where?- Where? Where?
• how?- How?
• how long?— how long?
• which?- which?
• who?- Who?
• when?- When?

Special questions in English The word order after the question word is the same as in the general question.

• General question: Does he see her every day? → add an interrogative pronoun to the first place, and we get →
• Special question: Where does he see her every day?

So, the diagram will look like this:
Interrogative pronoun → Auxiliary Verb → Subject → Predicate → other members of the sentence.

Please note that in English there are often phrasal verbs, i.e., some prepositions are closely related to these verbs. When special questions are asked in English, these prepositions are placed at the very end of the sentence. For example:

• What are you busy with? - What are you doing?
• What are you asking for? -What are you asking for?
• Who were they waiting for? -Who were they waiting for?

Answers to special questions are usually given in detail.

Video on the topic: Special question in English

4. Question to the subject and its definition

Questions to the subject or its definition always begin with interrogative pronouns:

• Who- Who
• What- What
• Which- which
• Whose- whose

In questions to the subject, the word order of the declarative sentence is preserved.

For example:

• Narrative Suggestion: They must do it every day. → instead of subject They put Who, we leave the rest of the sentence unchanged, and we get →
• Question to the subject: Who must do it every day?

Note that if the sentence refers to the present tense, then the interrogative words who, what, which usually agree with the predicate in the 3rd person singular form. Because we do not know what answer will follow; it is customary to use the 3rd person.

For example:

• Narrative Suggestion: They study at school. → instead of subject They put Who, and add to the verb 3rd person ending, and we get →
• Question to the subject: Who stud ies at school?

You also need to remember that the question word “ which- which" involves choosing from a certain number of objects or persons. Therefore, it is often used with a noun or pronoun preceded by a preposition of. For example:

• Which of the children... - Which of the children...
• Which of you... - Which of you...

Questions about the subject or its definition are given short answers that consist of a subject expressed by a noun or pronoun and the corresponding auxiliary verb.

5. Dividing question

Disjunctive questions in English are asked to test an assumption or express doubt. The peculiarity of a separating question is that it consists of two parts and is separated by a comma. That's why it's called separating. The first part consists of a declarative sentence with direct word order. The second part is a short question, which consists of an auxiliary or modal verb and a pronoun that replaces the subject. A comma is placed between them. In the second part, as you already understood, the reverse word order is used, and it is translated into Russian: isn’t it?, isn’t it?, isn’t it?

Remember that if the first part of the question is affirmative, then the verb in the second part must be in the negative form. If the first part of the question is negative, then in the second part the verb must be in the affirmative form.

Let's look at a couple of examples:

• Narrative sentence affirmative: She can cook that dish. → can, add a piece “ not"and the pronoun itself she. We get →
• Dividing question: She can cook that dish, can't she?

• Narrative sentence negative: She can't cook that dish. → We rewrite the sentence, put a comma, put a question indicator, i.e. in this case a modal verb can, there is no need to add the “not” particle, because it is in the first part of the sentence, and finally the pronoun itself she. We get →

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

1. 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).
2. 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 yesterday at 5 pm?” - 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).
3. Once 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:

1. You understand what English verb tenses are and how to use them;
2. 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).

1. Your husband loves mushrooms, doesn't he?
2. Who broke our printer last week?
3. When will you come to me?
4. Are your children swimming or eating now?
5. What were your colleagues doing yesterday at 5 pm?
6. Will they be working at the library tomorrow from 3 to 5?
7. He already wrote the letter, didn't he?
8. Did she leave before you called?
9. Will you have translated the article by 6 pm?
10. You've been waiting for me for half an hour, aren't you?

1. Your husband likes mushrooms, doesn’t he? (Disjunctive question)
2. Who broke our printer last week? (Special question - to the subject)
3. When will you come to me? (Special question)
4. Are your children swimming or eating now? (Alternative question)
5. What were your colleagues doing yesterday at 5 o’clock in the evening? (Special question)
6. Will they be working in the library from 3 till 5? (General question)
7. He has written a letter, hasn’t he? (Disjunctive question)
8. Had she left before you called? (General question)
9. Will you have translated the article by 6 p.m.? (General question)
10. 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?”

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.

• 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 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 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?

According to the purpose of the utterance, there are three main types of sentences in English: declarative sentences, interrogative sentences and imperative sentences. In this case, we are interested in interrogative sentences. The types of questions in English are the following: general, alternative, question to the subject, special and dividing. Each type has its own characteristics, so we will consider each of them separately.

1. General Question

The general question is asked about the entire sentence. You can answer it either “yes” or “no”. That is why general questions in English are also called yes/no questions. The word order is reversed here. The auxiliary verb (Auxiliary Verb) should come first, then the subject (Subject), predicate (Predicate) and other members of the sentence.

To pose a grammatically correct question, the auxiliary verb do (does) is required, in the Past Simple - did. If the sentence uses the verb to be or as a predicate (with the exception of have to and need to), then they will act as auxiliaries. Examples:

• Does James smoke? — Does James smoke?
• Are are you living in London now? — Do you live in London now?
• I have a look at your photos? -Can I see your photos?

Short answers to common questions depend entirely on the auxiliary verb used. If the question begins with the verb does, then it should also appear in the answer. For example:

• Does she like English poetry? — Yes, she does. — Does she like English poetry? - Yes.
• Is Ann playing the piano? - No, she isn't. — Does Anna play the piano? - No.

2. Alternative Question

An alternative question in English involves a choice. It always contains the conjunction or (or). The structure of this question is similar to the general one, but a choice sentence is also added here. Compare:

• Do you want to go to Warsaw by car? — Do you want to go to Warsaw by car?
• Do you want to go to Warsaw by car or by train?— Do you want to go to Warsaw by car or by train?

• Is Kate going to buy shoes? — Is Katya going to buy shoes?
• Is Kate going to buy shoes or high boots? — Is Katya going to buy shoes or boots?

3. Question to the subject (Subject Question)

When posing a question to the subject, the direct word order in the sentence does not change. You just need to use a suitable question word instead of the subject. Who (who), What (what) are usually used. It should be noted that in the Present Simple tense the verb will be used in the third person, singular. Examples:

• Who lives in that old house? -Who lives in that old house?
• Who will post this letter? - Who will send it?
• What caused the exlosion? — What triggered the explosion?

4. Special Question

Special questions in English are used to request specific information. They begin with the question words Who, What, Which, When, Where, Why, How, How many/How much . The word order after the question word remains the same as in the general question, you just need to remove the part of the sentence to which the question is asked. For example:

• What does Jane do on Sundays? — What does Jane do on Sundays?
• Why are you sitting at my desk? - Why are you sitting at my desk?
• When did he borrow your car? - When did he take your car?
• How many pictures have they bought? — How many paintings did they buy?

In English, phrasal verbs are common, that is, a sentence contains a preposition that is closely related to the main verb. When posing a special question, this preposition is used at the very end of the sentence. For example:

• What are you busy with? - What are you doing?
• Who was Jack waiting for? -Who was Jack waiting for?

5. Disjunctive Question.

Disjunctive questions in English are an affirmative or negative declarative sentence followed by a short general question, often called a tag. This type of question is used to express surprise, doubt, confirmation of what was said. The “tail” itself is translated into Russian as “isn’t it true”, “isn’t it so”.

When posing a question, the first part remains unchanged, in the second part an auxiliary verb is placed at the beginning (depending on the predicate in the first part), and then the nominative pronoun comes. If the sentence is affirmative, then the “tail” must be made negative and vice versa. Examples:

• You heard from him, didn't you? “You heard from him, didn’t you?”
• Alex is a driver, isn't he? — Alex is the driver, isn’t he?
• That isn't Tom is it? - It's Tom, isn't it?
• Ann hasn't got color TV set, has vshe? — Anya doesn’t have a color TV, does she?

When considering this type of question, it should be noted that dividing questions in English have several nuances that are important to remember.
1. I am the first part requires a question aren't I.

• I'm so exhausted aren't I? “I’m so tired of everything, aren’t I?”

2. If the first part begins with let's, then in the second part we use the question shall we.

• Let's visit our grandparents, shall we? - Let's visit our grandparents, okay?

3. If the pronouns anyone, anybody, nobody, nobody, neither, everybody, everyone, somebody, someone are used as the subject of a sentence, then the pronoun is placed in the second part they. For example:

• Neither of them prepared for the lesson, did they? “None of them were prepared for the lesson, were they?”
• Someone had seen him, hadn’t they? - Someone saw him, didn't they?
• Everyone liked your story, didn’t they? — Everyone liked your story, didn’t they?

There are 5 types of questions in English. Mastering them will not be difficult if you know the word order in declarative sentences and can pose general questions to them.

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 put 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."

Pay attention! 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?"