In English there are two types of questions: Yes/No questions, and Question-word questions.
Yes/No questions
Yes/No questions always starts with a verb. If the verb is ‘to be’, we invert the subject and verb to make the question:
- He is a teacher. – Is he teacher? – Yes, he is.
- They are from Ireland. – Are they from Ireland? – Yes, they are.
- You are Italian. Are you Italian? – Yes, I am
To form Yes/No questions where there is an auxiliary verb or a modal verb, we invert the word order of the subject and the auxiliary/modal placing the subject between the two parts of the verb.
- You can swim. – Can you swim? – Yes, I can.
- I will see you tomorrow. – Will I see you tomorrow? – Yes, you will.
- She has eaten lunch. – Has she eaten lunch? – Yes, she has.
When there is no auxiliary verb we add ‘do’ to form the question keeping the subject between the two parts of the verb.
- You eat fish. – Do you eat fish? – Yes, I do.
- She doesn’t know you. – Does she know you? – No, she doesn’t.
- They drank coffee. – Did they drink coffee? – Yes, they did.
NOTE: When adding the verb ‘do’, we must conjugate it for the subject and leave the main verb in its root form (infinitive without ‘to’)
Question-word questions (objects)
We ask a question-word question by placing a question-word (interrogative pronoun) at the beginning of the sentence. Here are some of the more common question words: ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘how’, ‘how much’, and ‘how many’. When we ask a question-word question, we usually want to know about the object of the answer.
When the verb is to ‘be’ we invert the subject and verb to make the question:
- Where is he from? – He is from Ireland.
- Where is the book? – The book is on the table.
Where there is an auxiliary or modal verb, that verb is used to form the question.
- What can you see? I can see the ocean.
- Where have you been? I have been to NY.
When there is no auxiliary verb we add ‘do’ to form the question keeping the subject between the two parts of the verb.
- How did you go home? – I went home by train.
- What did James drop? – He dropped a glass.
- How much does it cost? – It costs $20.
Question-word questions (subjects)
Sometime, we want to know about the subject of the question. In this case, we don’t add an auxiliary verb (do) and the subject-verb order is not inverted. In these questions the question-word is the subject of the sentence.
- Who dropped the glass? – James dropped the glass (James did).
- What is on the table? The book is on the table (The book is).
- Who shot Willy? – The sheriff shot Willy (The sheriff did).
Look at this example:
The sheriff shot Willy
- Who did the sheriff shoot? (The sheriff is the subject of the question.)
- Who shot Willy? (Who is the subject of the question.)