Advanced Grammar - Questions

Grammar
Minute
How do I form a question?
BASIC QUESTION STRUCTURES
WH Questions:
Question word > Auxiliary verb > Subject > Main verb >
Complement
Yes/No Questions:
Auxiliary verb > Subject > Main verb > Complement
QUESTION WORDS
Basic QW Other QW
What Which
Who Whom
Where Whose
When How + Adjectives/Adverbs
Why
How
Let’s try!
do Anne and Betty get to school every day?
sugar cubes would you like in your coffee?
have you chosen to stay in this city?
do you prefer to study - at night or in the morning?
do you prefer - wine or beer?
is the best student in this class?

Let’s try!
coffee do you drink every day?
socks are these?
did you see at the market?
have you been living here?
had you lived before moving to Brasília?

MAIN AUXILIARY VERBS
TO BE
TO DO
TO HAVE
*CAREFUL*
To be, to do and to have are the most common
auxiliary verbs, but they MUST agree with the
verb tense and subject.
❌ What do you do yesterday?
✓ What did you do yesterday?
❌ Where has you travelled?
✓ Where have you travelled?

MORE AUXILIARY VERBS (MODAL VERBS)
It’s important to remember that modal verbs are also

auxiliary verbs, therefore in sentences with modal verbs
we don't need another auxiliary to form questions.
CAN (ability, permission) We will deal with modal verbs
COULD (ability, polite requests) in another session of Grammar
SHOULD (advice) Minute!
WOULD (hypothetical situations)
WILL (simple future, polite requests

There is more!
EXCEPTIONS TO THE BASIC QUESTION STRUCTURE
SUBJECT QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS WITH PREPOSITION
INDIRECT QUESTIONS
REPORTED QUESTIONS
TAG QUESTIONS
Subject questions and object questions
We use subject questions when we are asking about who, what, etc. did the action. We do
not use an auxiliary verb after the question word if the question word (who, what, etc.) is
the subject of the sentence.
● Who won the match? (NOT Who did win … )

● What happened last night? (NOT What did happen … )
● How many people went to the party? (NOT How many people did go …)
When we are asking about the object (after the verb) we use the normal order of the
English question: auxiliary verb + subject. These types of questions are called object
questions.
Questions with preposition
In informal or spoken English, when a question word needs a preposition, the preposition goes at the end of
the question (after the verb or after verb + object if there is an object). We don’t use the preposition at the
beginning.
● I played tennis with John. ⇒ Who did you play tennis with?
● I work for a multinational company ⇒ What company do you work for?
● We usually talk about sports. ⇒ What do you usually talk about?
Indirect Questions
Me: Excuse me. Could you tell me where the nearest station is?
Person in the street: Certainly. It's along that road on the right.
Me: Thank you. And do you know if there's a supermarket near here?
Person in the street: Yes, there's one next to the station.
Me: Thank you very much for your help.
I use indirect questions when I'm asking for help in the street, because they are very polite. Indirect
questions start with a phrase like 'could you tell me...' or 'do you know...'. For example:
Direct question: Where is the bank?

Indirect question: Could you tell me where the bank is?
Notice that in the indirect question I put the verb ('is') after the subject ('the bank'), in the same way as I do
with a normal positive sentence ('the bank is over there'), but in the direct question I put the verb 'is' before
the subject 'the bank'.
Reported Speech
Reported Speech has different structures depending on the type of sentence it is reporting:
Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in
direct speech is still true.
Direct speech: The sky is blue.
Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue.
Reported Questions
- Once we ask a question to someone else, it isn't a question anymore. So we need to change the grammar to
a normal positive sentence:
Direct speech: Where do you live?
Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.
- to report a 'yes / no' question (when we don't have any question words to help us) we use 'if':
Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?
Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.
Tag Questions
We use tag questions to ask for confirmation, specially when we know the answer.
They mean something like: "Is that right?" or "Do you agree?" They are very common
in English.
The basic structure of a tag question is:
Positive Statement Negative Tag Negative Statement Positive Tag
Snow is white, isn’t it? You won’t go to the party, will you?
She works here, doesn’t she? She didn’t go, did she?
Notice that the tag repeats the auxiliary verb (or main verb when it’s the verb to be) from the
statement and changes it to negative or positive.
Tag questions are mostly used for convenience, therefore the tag should always be contracted in
the negative:
Present She's Italian, isn't she? Past simple be' It was cold yesterday, wasn't
simple 'be' it?
Present They live in London, don't they? Past simple He went to the party last
simple night, didn't he?
Tag Questions
As all rules in English Grammar, there are special cases.
1 - Negative adverbs: The adverbs never, rarely, seldom, hardly, barely and scarcely have a
negative sense, therefore the tag questions should always be positive:
He never came again, did he?
You hardly ever came late, did you?
2 - Imperative: Sometimes we use question tags with imperatives (invitations, orders), but the sentence
remains an imperative and does not require a direct answer. We use won't for invitations. We use can,
can't, will, would for orders.
Take a seat, won't you? polite invitation
Help me, can you? quite friendly
Help me, can't you? quite friendly (some irritation?)
Close the door, would you? quite polite
Do it now, will you. less polite
Don't forget, will you. with negative imperatives only will is possible
Tag Questions
Some more special cases:
Example notes
I am right, aren't I? aren't I (not amn't I)
You have to go, don't you? you (do) have to go...
I have been answering, haven't I? use first auxiliary
Nothing came in the post, did it? treat statements with nothing, nobody etc like
negative statements
Let's go, shall we? let's = let us
He used to do it, didn’t he? Modal “used to” (not an auxiliary)

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

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Grammar

do Anne and Betty get to school every day?

sugar cubes would you like in your coffee?

have you chosen to stay in this city?

do you prefer to study - at night or in the morning?

do you prefer - wine or beer?

is the best student in this class?

coffee do you drink every day?

socks are these?

did you see at the market?

have you been living here?

had you lived before moving to Brasília?

✓ What did you do yesterday?

❌ Where has you travelled?

✓ Where have you travelled?

It’s important to remember that modal verbs are also

COULD (ability, polite requests) in another session of Grammar

SHOULD (advice) Minute!

WOULD (hypothetical situations)

WILL (simple future, polite requests

● Who won the match? (NOT Who did win … )

Direct question: Where is the bank?

Take a seat, won't you? polite invitation

Help me, can you? quite friendly

Help me, can't you? quite friendly (some irritation?)

Close the door, would you? quite polite

Do it now, will you. less polite

Some more special cases:

I am right, aren't I? aren't I (not amn't I)

You have to go, don't you? you (do) have to go...

I have been answering, haven't I? use first auxiliary

Let's go, shall we? let's = let us

He used to do it, didn’t he? Modal “used to” (not an auxiliary)

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