Forming questions

Forming questions

Some questions begin with a wh-word. We can call these wh-questions:

• What are you doing tomorrow? • Where have you been?

Some questions can be answered with 'yes' or 'no'. We can call these yes/no questions.

• Have you had to come far? • Did she leave any message?

QU there is an auxiliary verb (be, do, have, can, will, etc.) we put it in front of the subject:

• • Have you ever visited California? • Why are you telling me this now?

If there is more than one auxiliary verb, we put only the first auxiliary in front of the subject:

• Will they be arrested if they refuse to leave? (not Will be they arrested...?)

We can make questions in a similar way when be is a main verb:

• Was she happy when she lived in France? • When is he likely to arrive?

When we ask yes/no questions with have as the main verb, we usually use Have...got...? or

Do...have...? Questions such as 'Have you a pen?' are rather formal (see also Unit 27):

• Do you have... / Have you got a reservation? (rather than Have you a...?)

If there is no other auxiliary verb, we make a question by putting do or does (present simple), or

did (past simple) in front of the subject. A bare infinitive comes after the subject:

• Does anyone know where I left my diary? • When did you last see Mary?

If we use what, which, who or whose as the subject, we don't use do:

• What happened to your car? (not What did happen...?)

Compare:

• Who (= subject) did you speak to at the party? and • Who (= object) spoke to you?

Notice that we can sometimes use do when what, which, who or whose is subject if we want to

encourage the speaker to give an answer. Do is stressed in spoken English:

• Come on, be honest - who did tell you?

Study how we ask questions about what people think or say using a that-c\ause:

• When do you think (that) he will arrive? • What do you suggest (that) I should do next?

We can ask questions like this with advise, propose, recommend, say, suggest, suppose, think.

When the w^-word is the subject of the second clause we don't include that:

• Who did you say was coming to see me this morning? (not ...say that was coming...?)

Reporting questions

When we report a wh-question we use a reporting clause (see Unit 43) followed by a clause

beginning with a м/^-word. When we report a yes/no question we use a reporting clause

followed by a clause beginning with either if or whether:

• She asked me what the problem was. • Liz wanted to know if/whether I'd seen Tony.

We usually put the subject before the verb in the wh-, if-, or whether-clause:

а • 'Have you seen Paul recently?' -• She wanted to know if I had seen Paul recently.

•However, if the original question begins what, which, or who followed by be + complement, we

can put the complement before or after be in the report:

• 'Who was the winner?' —> I asked who the winner was. (or ...who was the winner. )

Notice that we don't use a form of do in the wh-, if-, or wh ether-clause:

• She asked me where I (had) found it. (not ...where did I find it./...where I did find it.)

However, if we are reporting a negative question, we can use a negative form of do:

• He asked (me) why I didn't want anything to eat.