How are you? What time is it? Whose pencil is this?
A question asks for information. But questions sometimes have other uses, especially questions with
modal verbs (e.g.
shall, could, can, would, may, etc.)
Here are some examples:
Making a suggestion:
Shall we go then?
Requesting:
Could you pass the sugar, please?
Offering:
Can I carry something for you?
Inviting:
Would you like to come to a party?
Asking permission:
May I use your phone?
There are two kinds of question.
- YES/NO Question - A yes/no question can have the answer yes or no: Are you ready? Do you have a pencil? Is it raining?
- WH Question - A wh-question begins with a question word (who, what, which, whose, where, when, why, how): What have you done? Where do you work? When did you arrive? These questions require a complete answer.
When asking questions we change the word order of the sentence. We invert the
subject and the helping verb. This means that the
helping verb (a form of be, have, or a modal verb) comes before the subject.
In the present simple and past simple, we use a form of
do
Do the shops stay open late?
When
does the coach leave?
Did you like the film?
What
did Joanna buy?
A question cannot begin with an ordinary verb like
stay, leave, like or
buy.
The verb after the subject does not end in
s or
ed.
Now that you know everything there is to know about questions, let's write some.
We're going to do this a little different though. I will give each of you an answer, and you will write the question ;-) Have fun!
Now it's your turn. Let's see what you can come up with.
