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How to ask questions in English. What are common questions in English? Alternative questions in English

Hello, reader interested in learning English!

Remember: what thought do you wake up with in the morning? The first question, or one of the first, that girls have at the beginning of the day is what to wear? For men, most likely, what’s for breakfast today? 🙂 Every day people ask hundreds of questions, both in relation to themselves and to other people, situations, actions, everything that happens... Various questions and the thirst for answers awaken in us from infancy: what is it, how is it, why? This couple accompanies people throughout their lives and helps them to know themselves, the world. How can you understand the world if you don’t know foreign language? You see, and then a question arose and we have an answer from Native English School. Well, now, p We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the topic Types of questions in English language.

5 types of questions in English

If we consider how to ask questions in English through the scheme of their construction: question word / auxiliary verb + subject + predicate + object + other members of the sentence, everything seems simple, right? But in order to fully understand the principles of composing questions in English, let's find out the basics of their formation for each type.

Yes/No question

This can be called a general question, the answer to which is a short “yes” or “no”.

To create this type of question you need to combine:

Auxiliary/ modal verb+ subject + predicate + object + other parts of the sentence

In this case, we do not use question words; we pay attention to the auxiliary verbs: do, does, am, is, are, will, did, have, has:

Do you speak English? - Do you speak English?
Does your sister live in Poland? – Does your sister live in Poland?
Am I wrong? - I am wrong?
Is your job interesting? – Is your work interesting?
Are you married? - You are married?
Will you be at work tomorrow? – Will you be at work tomorrow?
Did you see Nick yesterday? – Did you see Nick yesterday?
Have you bought anything on this website? – Have you bought anything on this site?
Has he got pets? – Does he have pets?

Brief answers in English to such questions are composed as follows: yes/no (yes/no) + personal pronoun + verb (+ not in negation):

Yes, I do./ No, I don’t.
Yes, she does./ No, she doesn’t.
Yes, you are./ No, you are not.
Yes, it is./ No, it isn’t.
Yes, I am./ No, I’m not.
Yes, I will./ No, I won’t.
Yes, I did./ No, I didn’t.
Yes, I have./ No, I haven’t.
Yes, he has./ No, he hasn’t.

Wh-question

Special questions in English, which will be discussed, are used with various parts of speech, like general ones, only with the addition of a question word at the beginning:who, what, when, where, why, which, whose and how – this, as always, is an exception to the Wh rule.

This form of question helps you get more specific information.

Who lives in Poland? – Who lives in Poland?
What is the movie about? – What is this film about?
When did you get married? - When did you get married?
Where do you learn English? – Where do you learn English?
Why are you crying? - Why are you crying?
Which dress should I buy? – Which dress should I buy?
Whose cat is that? - Whose cat is this?
How are you? - How are you?

There are two forms of answering special questions: shortened and expanded. Let's look at the above questions as examples:

My sister./My sister lives in Poland. – My sister./ My sister lives in Poland.
About love./This movie is about love. – About love./ This film is about love.
Last year./ I got married last year. – Last year./ I got married last year.
In the school./I learn English in the school. At school./ I study English at school.
I’ve lost my wallet./I’m crying because I’ve lost my wallet. I lost my wallet./ I'm crying because I lost my wallet.
Red./You should buy the red one. Red./ You should buy a red dress.
Nick's./This is Nick's cat. Nika./ This is Nika the cat.

Regarding how are you, the answer, as such, will not carry any semantic load. Greeting form involves short answers: I’m fine, ok, not bad, good. It would be polite to ask your interlocutor about the same: And you? What you will most likely receive: I’m fine too, thank you.

Question to the subject

This is perhaps the easiest of the 5 types of questions in English. Judge for yourself: there is no need to change the word order, no auxiliary verbs are needed, most often questions begin with the words who, what. And most importantly, interrogative pronouns serve as subjects. What remains is a simple declarative sentence, only with a question. Attach the 2nd form of the verb –ed or –es (–s) to the action, you can even use a negation of does not, indicate the sign, location and form your question:

Who came to the office? – Who came to the office?
What is that? - What is this?
Who doesn't get the invitation? – Who didn’t receive an invitation?

The answers, like the questions themselves, are quite brief:

Michael did. - Michael.
This is my new car. - This is my new car.
Your grandparents are. - Your grandparents.

Tag question

The dividing type of question consists of two parts: the first is a statement, the second is a short question about the statement. With its help, you can verify the reliability of information, confirm a thought, or express distrust. It is important to remember that if the first part of the question contains a statement, the second will have a negative form and vice versa, if the first part contains a negation, the second will be in the affirmative form:

You speak German, don’t you? – You speak German, don’t you?
He saw her yesterday, doesn’t he? – He saw her yesterday, didn’t he?
She will leave next week, won’t she? - She's leaving next week, isn't she?
They are tired, aren’t they? -They're tired, aren't they?
You didn’t go to the cinema yesterday, did you? – You didn’t go to the cinema yesterday, did you?
Eric doesn`t know Tim, does he? – Eric doesn't know Tim, does he?
They won't do it, will they? “They won’t do that, will they?”
It can’t be true, can it? - This can't be true, right?

Note: for words such as no, never, no one, nobody, scarcely, rarely, hardly, refuse, etc. If they are in the first part of the sentence, it automatically becomes negative, which means the second part automatically becomes positive, that is, affirmative:

Nobody was there, were they? – There was no one there, was there?
He has never been to Ukraine, has he? – He has never been to Ukraine, has he?
They hardly knew how it tasted, do they? – They could hardly imagine how tasty it was, didn’t they?

The answer to the dividing question is simple: yes, no, or an expanded form. You need to focus on the main offer. Please note that if in Russian you would answer yes to a similar question with a negative in the first part expressing agreement, in English it would be no and vice versa. For example:

You don’t know how to answer the question, do you? No, I don't. Yes, I do. You don't know how to answer this question, do you? I have no idea. No, I know.
You haven’t been to London, have you? No, I haven't. - Yes, I have. You haven't been to London, have you? Yes, I wasn't. - No, I was.

Or question

An alternative question is formed using the conjunction or and an additional option, because it involves some kind of choice.

Such a question can begin with either an auxiliary or modal verb or a question word:

Did they visit USA or Canada last year? – Last year they were in the USA or Canada?
When will you finish the report: today or tomorrow? – When will you finish the report: today or tomorrow?
What flowers do you like: roses or daisies? – What flowers do you like: roses or daisies?
Will you watch TV or go to the cinema? – Will you watch TV or go to the cinema?

Answers to an alternative question cannot be in a simple yes or no form. Should be used full forms, repeating part of the question, but as a statement:

I'm ready. Let's go! - I'm ready. Let's go to!
They visit Canada last year. – Last year they were in Canada.
I will finish this report on Friday. – I will finish this report on Friday.
I like neither roses nor daisies. – I don’t like roses or daisies.
I will stay at home and read a book. – I’ll stay at home and read a book.

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 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 to general outline with each of the 5 types of questions, explain their meaning, features and design. Types of questions in English Construction 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

Question	Answer
Do you have a dog? Does he read that book? Did you visit your grandmother? Is she a student? Was he in Moscow? Can I help you? Must children do homework?	Yes, I do / No, I don’t Yes, he does/ No, he doesn’t Yes, I did / No, I didn’t Yes, she is/ No, she isn’t Yes, he was/ No, he wasn’t Yes, you can / No, you can’t Yes, they must/ No, they must not

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 in 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?

Summarize! 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

Question	Answer
Is this a pen or a pencil? Does Ann work as a teacher or a doctor? Is that pencil red or green? Was Peter in Moscow or in Minsk? Does Jim like playing chess or watching TV?	It's a pencil. She works as a doctor. It's green. He was in Minsk. He likes playing chess.

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

Question	Answer
Where do you have vacation every summer? When can I see her? What is your favorite color? How does he get to work? Why are you eating at my desk?	I have vacation in London. You can see her today. My favorite color is blue. He gets to work by bus. Because I am hungry.

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

Question	Answer
What is on going on there? Who is listening to the tape? Which of the children is going to the Zoo on Sunday? Whose children are having dinner now?	A fight is. Peter is. John is. Peter's children are.

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 objects or persons. Therefore, it is often used in conjunction 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

Question	Answer
He is a student, isn’t he? My friends don’t play football, do they? She can play piano, can’t she? It isn’t warm today, is it? Alex speaks English, doesn’t he?	Yes, he is. No, they don't. Yes, she can. No, it isn't. Yes, he does.

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 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 →
Separated 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 in this case 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 →

“I had heard about conversation clubs for a long time, but it seemed like a rather strange activity to me. I didn't understand what I could chat about with strangers, and even in broken English. However, the first session got me involved from the very first minutes. In such conversations, we need a formative center, bright and perky. Sean, a native speaker, turned out to be just that. In a matter of seconds he involved all the participants in a single game. Thank you very much to Sean, for the pleasure of communication. Thank you to Irina, for another push from your comfort zone into a pleasant floundering in an unfamiliar environment. I study individually with an Australian teacher, but group experience is important and needed along with other types of practice. I'll be happy to continue. Thanks to the organizers"

Ekaterina from Moscow, 33 years old

Milana Bogdanova

Mikhail Chukanov

Onlinewell: “Learning to read in English with pleasure”: « Thanks to all the creators of the course for this opportunity!!! What happened is a very significant event for me - I really started reading (and continue to do so with pleasure) in English ke! This is amazing, because I was afraid to get close to books in English, even looking at small information and English-language sites caused significant difficulties.”

Natasha Kalinina

Milana Bogdanova

“I have always been convinced that reading books in a language foreign to me is an extremely impossible task for me, but thanks to experienced teachers and my wonderful support group (training participants with whom I was in the group), I discovered a unique the opportunity to read and also get great pleasure from reading.»

Elya Alieva

Online course “ENGLISH THROUGH SELF-DEVELOPMENT”: “I began to use English more for practical tasks. For example, I recently selected an offer for the sale of a guitar on a London classifieds website, corresponded with the sellers myself, and bought a legendary guitar from an English company. musical family in London. We even sat and talked with them “for life.” This is a small victory for me! »

Mikhail Chukanov

Online course “Learning to read in English with pleasure”:“Seriously, if someone had told me a couple of months ago that I would devote every evening to reading in English, I would have been very surprised. Previously, for me it was more torture than pleasure, more a necessity than a choice.”

Olga Pashkevich

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 English sentences and requires the use of a question word, and the word order is also reversed: in the first place (When? What? Where?, etc.) - an auxiliary verb (depending on the number of the subject and what grammatical tense the sentence belongs to) - the 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.

Every day we ask questions. For example, we often ask:

- How are you doing?

- What did you do yesterday?

-Who will go to the store?

-Are you going to the cafe or not?

Everyone who learns English must know how questions are formed, because without them you will not be able to communicate. In English there is 5 types of questions.

In the article I I will explain how they differ from each other, when they are used and how they are formed.

Special questions in English

The word “special” means “intended exclusively for something.” Accordingly, this question needed to find out specific information you are interested in. That’s why it’s called special, that is, you want to clarify special information.

For example

Where will you go on vacation?

We find out specific information - the place where the person will go.

How to construct a special question?

It is asked using the following question words:

what - what,
where - where,
when - when,
who - who,
why - why,
how (much/often/long) - how (many/often/long).

A special question is constructed according to the following scheme:

Question word + auxiliary verb + actor+ the action being performed?

Examples

Step by step guide
>> How to ask specific questions.

Question to the subject in English

The subject names who or what the sentence is talking about.

In the survey, the subject is asked with the interrogative words who and what, which replace the character or thing being talked about in the sentence. For example

Who will pack your suitcase for you?

Consequently, we ask a question to the subject when we do not know who performed the action or has the attribute.

How to construct a question to the subject?

The peculiarity of this question will be the order of words in the sentence. In this type of question, the word order never changes and goes as in affirmative sentence. The outline of such a proposal would be as follows:

Who + action?

For example, we have an affirmative sentence

They played tennis.
They played tennis.

We simply substitute the question word who instead of they

Who played tennis?
Who played tennis?

At the same time, we imagine that who/what is the singular person about whom we're talking about(he she). Therefore, the sentence should be constructed as if in place of who/what costs he/she.

For example, we have a proposal

They were in the car.
They were in the car.

When asking a question, we forget about they and introduce he in its place, therefore, we replace were with was

Who were in the car?
Who was in the car?

Examples

Who likes to sing?
Who loves to sing?

What was in the box?
What was in the box?

Who is a doctor?
Who is the doctor?

Step by step guide:
>> How to construct a question to the subject? .

Alternative questions in English

True to its name, this question presupposes an alternative, that is, the right to choose. By asking it we give the interlocutor two options to choose from.

Example

Will you fly to England or Germany?

In such a matter there is always there is a conjunction or (or). The question itself is constructed as a general one, only at the end we add a choice clause using our or.

Scheme for constructing an alternative question:

Auxiliary verb + actor + action performed + ___ or ___?

Examples

Will they go to the park or to the cinema?
Will they go to the park or to the cinema?

Did you buy apples or pears?
Did you buy apples or pears?

Does he work or study?
Does he work or study?

Step by step guide:
>> How to construct an alternative question correctly.

Dividing questions in English

This type of question is also called a “tail question.” A question expresses doubt or desires confirmation of something.

For example

You've already packed your suitcase, haven't you?

It is divisive because consists of 2 parts, separated by commas.

The first part is constructed as an affirmative or negative sentence with the usual word order.

The second part (“tail”) looks like a short question. It consists of:

auxiliary verb (depending on the tense used in the first part);
character (I, you, he, she, they, it, we, you) used in the first part.

We translate such a “tail” into Russian as “isn’t it so” / “isn’t it true?”

1. If the first part of the sentence is affirmative, then the second part is negative.

Affirmative sentence + auxiliary verb + not (in shortened form) + character?

Examples

He called you yesterday, didn't he?
He called you yesterday, didn't he?

They play tennis every weekends, don't they?
They play tennis every weekend, don't they? Examples

So, we have looked at all five types of questions in English. Now let's move on to practice.

Reinforcement task

Make 5 types of questions from the following affirmative sentences:

1. He went to school yesterday.
2. She gave me a phone.
3. We will read this book.
4. They bought a car.
5. She doesn’t like to cook.

Leave your answers in the comments below the article.

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