There are five types of questions in English:
I. General Question(for ease of recording in further formulas, we denote this type of question by the letter T).
II. Alternative Question(question-choice) .
III. Special Question
IV. Disjunctive question(question-request, narrative sentence + short question to it ( Question Tags)).
V. Question to the subject.
Characteristics of question types
I - applied to the entire sentence, and you can give it short answer "yes" or "no":
Do you live in Kyiv? - Yes.
He is a student? - No.
II - choice question, which cannot be answered “yes” or “no”, need to give an answer to the choice:
Do you live in Kyiv or Lvov? - I live in Kyiv.
Is he a student or a worker? - Student.
III - is placed on a separate word (member) of a sentence(requires a special answer). Based on this characteristic, we can pose a question to the word - the subject of the sentence and this will also be a special question. But the construction of a question to the subject differs from the construction of all other special questions, therefore the question to the subject is included in an independent type of questions ( V).
Where do you live?
Who is he?
IV - corresponds to Russian questions - repeat questions like "is not it?", "it's true?"These questions, like general questions, require an affirmative or negative answer, that is, an affirmation or denial of the thought expressed in the question.
I live in Kyiv, right?
He's not a student, right?
V - to questions about the subject or its definition Usually short answers are given, which consist of a subject and an appropriate auxiliary verb in the required person, number, tense.
Who lives on Kiev? My sister does.
Construction of questions
1. The basis for constructing all types of questions(except the last one) is a common question. There are two ways to construct a general question:
First way refers to all sentences whose predicate is any form of verbs "to be", "to have" or modal verbs (if they are part of a complex predicate). The general question according to the first method is built according to the verb rule "to be".
Not a student.
Is he a student?
I have read the book.
Have I read the book?
Second way applies to all other sentences (when the predicate does not include the verbs listed above). The general question regarding the second method is based on the formula:
Everyone knows this phrase without error, even those who can’t say anything else in English. It is taken as an example, a standard of a general issue.
Using the substitution method using this formula, you can pose a general question to any sentence that fits the second method of constructing a question.
I live in Kiev.
Do I live in Kiev?
We lived in Kiev last year.
Did we live in Kiev last year?
He lives in Kiev.
Does he live in Kiev?
Having mastered the construction of a general question (which we previously designated T), we can move on to constructing all other questions.
2. An alternative question consists of a general question plus a choice, which is given through the word "or" ("or").
Do you live in Kiev or in Lvov?
Briefly this construction can be written as follows: T + "or".
3. A special question consists of a special word plus a general question
Special questions are:
what- what, who
who- Who
whose- whose, whose
where- where, where
when- When
why- Why
which- which one, etc.
All these special words have the first two letters in common. "wh", so the formula for a special question can be written as follows: "wh" + T
4. Dividing questions consist of 2 parts: First part represents narration(declarative sentence) - affirmative or negative, A second - a short general question to the first part (Question Tags), which consists of:
a) an auxiliary (or modal) verb in the required form
b) subject (always in the form of a pronoun)
c) there is always an inverse relationship between the first and second parts: if the 1st part is positive, then the 2nd is negative and vice versa.
Dividing question formula: S, + start T.
I live in Kiev.
I live in Kiev, don't I?
My friend is a student, isn't he?
Examples of using separating questions are discussed in vignette 11.
5. To build question to the subject(or its definition) you only need to replace the subject with a question word in a declarative sentence who "Who" or what "What", "Which", whose "whose", which "which". There are no more changes in the formation.
Question words who, what, which usually agree with the predicate verb in the 3rd person singular.
I live in Kiev?
Who lives in Kiev?
My friend is a student.
Who is a student?
I'm in such a musical mood today! what if we compare English to music? The English language is just as melodic Do re mi fa sol la si...
English as music
- before- subject(that is, the one who performs the action);
- re- this is a predicate(verb, action);
- mi- addition or circumstance;
- F- auxiliary verbs(do, does, did... or linking verb);
- salt- question words(what? where? where? how? why? how much?);
- la- or (or);
- si(What, Who in questions specifically to the subject, who or what did the action).
For example:
I like music. - Do re mi;
I am listening to music.
Are you listening to music? - fa do re mi;
Do you like music? - fa do re mi.
English questions may sound different. I suggest listening to 5 different melodies - types of English questions.
General question (YesNo Questions) - Fa do re mi
As its name suggests, these are questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.” Let's look at an example of this "melody" in the most common English verb tenses.
- Present Simple: Do you listen to music every day?
- Past Simple: Did you listen to music yesterday ?
- Future Simple: Will you listen to music tomorrow ?
- Present Continuous: Are you listening to music now?
- : Were you listening to music yesterday at 5 p.m. ?
- Present Perfect: Have you ever listened to Hawaiian music?
Special Question. Special question (Wh question)
Let's listen - Sol fa do re mi
- What do you listen to every day?
- When did you listen to that music?
- Where will you listen to music?
- Why are you listening to music?
- How were you listening to music?
- How many symphonies have you already listened to?
Alternative question
This is a type of question that asks for an alternative, a choice.
For example, " Do you like classical or popular music? »
Listen to one of the most common variations of this type of verb - Fa do re mi la mi
- Do you like classical or popular music?
Tag question
This is a question with a “tail”, when we say some phrase containing information that we are almost sure of and ask the interlocutor for confirmation “isn’t it? is not it?"
You love classical music, don't you?
This is the only question type whose main part has direct word order.
The tail contains an auxiliary verb and a subject, but if the main part of the sentence is positive, the tail must be negative, and vice versa, if the main part is negative, the tail will be positive.
Do re mi fa do
You like classical music, don’t you?
You are listening to Mozart music now, aren’t you?
You haven’t heard it before, have you?
Subject question
This melody does not like auxiliary verbs (do, does, did). And of course there is no note here BEFORE, because it is about this note (about the subject) that we ask through the note SI(Who or What did the action). Here's a note SI and becomes the subject.
Si re mi
Who likes classical music?
What inspired him to compose that Symphony?
Please note, since the note F(purple, indicating the auxiliary verbs do, does, did) is missing in this melody, verb (blue note re) is placed immediately in the required form in accordance with the grammatical tense, as in an affirmative sentence.
Who called? Past tense. Who called? The ending -ed was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Past Simple.
Who calls you every day? Who calls you every day? The ending -s was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Present Simple in the 3rd person singular (as with the pronouns he, she or it).
Now make 10 affirmative sentences in different tenses and ask all types of questions to each!
This way, the melodies will be firmly fixed in your memory, and you will not be out of tune.
We have made a short video lesson for you on this topic to better reinforce the material.
Enjoy watching.
Write in the comments if you liked the video?
Happy English to you!
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
To the question Create 5 types of questions in English. given by the author Tatyana Pavlyuk the best answer is five types:
Wh- questions or Special questions (questions to the subject);
General questions (general questions);
Disjunctive questions or otherwise question tags;
Alternative questions;
Questions with prepositions at the end.
Wh- questions or Special questions
The first type is special questions; in English they sound like Wh-questions or Special questions. Sometimes they are also called questions to the subject. A special question always begins with a question word, for example, what, who, when, why, where (What? Who? When? Why? Where?).
When did you come home? (When you came home?)
Why don’t you believe me? (Why you do not believe me?)
All these questions begin with WH, which is why special questions are called Wh- questions. Question words in this type of questions also include how, how much, how long (How? How much? How long?).
How much money should we pay? (How much money should we pay?)
If a special question begins with who/what, then the word order in the question is direct, since the question word replaces the subject.
Who is your doctor? (Who's your doctor?)
In this case, who/what is considered as the 3rd person, singular. number.
If the question word in a special question does not replace the subject, then an auxiliary verb is placed after it (do/does, will(shall), did, have/has, etc.).
Compare:
Who is standing there? (Who is standing there?)
Who did you talk with? (With whom did you talk?)
General questions
They are called general because the answer to such a question can be either “yes” or “no”.
The second name for general questions is yes/no questions. A common question begins with an auxiliary verb. After this, the subject or subject of the statement, then the semantic verb. The minor members of the sentence go to the end.
Do you see me? (Can you see me?) – No, I don’t.
Have you been there? (Were you there?) – Yes, I have.
Will you be here when I'm gone? (Will you be here when I leave?) – Yes, I will.
Thus, the answer to a general question contains "yes" or "no" and sometimes an auxiliary verb.
But! The verb to be in the present and past tense does not require auxiliary verbs.
Is he your friend? (Is he your friend?) - No, he isn’t.
Disjunctive questions
The second name is question tags (questions with a tail). A tag is a kind of tail that is placed after the entire sentence. These questions are based on the type of denial - affirmation, and vice versa.
The second part of the sentence must correspond to what is included in the predicate.
You are ok, aren’t you? (You're okay, aren't you?)
He knows my real name, doesn’t he? (He knows my real name, doesn't he?)
These people don’t know me, do they? (These people don't know me, do they?)
Tag or tail can be translated in different ways. Basically, the possible translations are: right? is not it? right? But in the Russian translation it is possible not to use the tail by inserting the word “after all” in the middle of the sentence.
We are young, aren’t we? (We're young, aren't we?)
The emphasis in such questions should fall on the second part.
Alternative questions
A distinctive feature of such questions is the presence of the conjunction “or” (or). This question cannot be answered in monosyllables; a choice must be made.
Are you going to go there by plane or by car? (Are you going to get there by plane or by car?) – I’m going to go there by plane.
Is she your wife or not? (Is she your wife or not?) - She is my wife.
Questions with prepositions at the end
They might not be separated into a separate category, but their composition differs in some features.
Place a preposition at the end if the semantic verb has a special preposition. For example, to look for (look for something), look at (see
Marina Marina
(4407)
Why did you give this person so much unnecessary information??? and why did you translate special questions as a question to the subject? This is a special question, and it can begin with the words how much, for example. in short, so much unnecessary stuff has been written.
A question that requires a "YES" or "NO" answer. In our case - “Do they go to Sochi every summer? - Yes. - No.”
In Russian, to ask this question, we simply change the intonation, but the word order remains the same.
In English, to ask a general question, you need to place the auxiliary verb first in the sentence.
So, let's look at our proposal and determine the time. Present Simple. The auxiliary verbs of this tense are “do” and “does”. For the pronoun "they" - "do".
We get: “Do they go to Sochi every summer?”
Answer: “Yes, they do” - “Yes.” "No, they don't" - "No."
Note! In English there are "strong verbs" that do not require an auxiliary verb. These are almost all modal verbs ("can", "may", "must", etc.) and the verb "to be" (or rather its forms).
2) Alternative question. Alternative Question
A matter of choice. I’ll show you with our example: “DO THEY or WE go to Sochi every summer?”, “Do they DRIVE or FLY to Sochi every summer?”, “Do they go to Sochi or Murmansk every summer?”, “They go to Sochi every SUMMER or WINTER?
Conclusion: we can set an alternative to each member of the sentence. In this case, we always use the conjunction “or” - “or”. Remember it!
Let's summarize... To ask an alternative question, we bring forward the auxiliary verb (as in the general question) and do not forget to ask an alternative to any member of the sentence using the conjunction "or".
We get: “Do we or they go to Sochi every summer?”
or: "Do they go to Sochi or Murmansk every summer?"
3) Dividing question. Tag-question
Question with a “tail”)) We translate the tail “Isn’t it?”
A dividing question is constructed using the following formula:
our sentence unchanged + comma + tail?
What kind of tail is this? It consists of 2 words: an auxiliary verb and a pronoun.
Let me explain with our example:
"They go to Sochi every summer."
First of all, it is necessary to accurately determine the time.. In our case - Present Simple.. auxiliary verbs "Do"/"Does".. "They" - "Do". Let's look at our sentence again and determine whether it is negative or affirmative.. Affirmative means our tail will be negative! If the sentence were negative, the auxiliary verb would become positive, i.e. without the negative particle "not".
We complete our sentence with the pronoun from the 1st part - “they”. Attention! If in the first part of the sentence the subject is a noun, replace it with a pronoun (for example, “a table” - “it”, “books” - “they”, “Mom” - “she”).
They go to Sochi every summer, don't they?
(They go to Sochi every summer, don't they?)
Note! If the role of subject and predicate is “I am”, in the tail we write “...., aren”t I?”
4) Special question. Special Question
A question in which the speaker requests specific information. (“Where do they go every summer?”, “Who goes to Sochi every summer?”, “When do they go to Sochi?”).
A special question is often called a "Wh-Question". This is due to the fact that almost all question words begin with the letter combination “Wh”.
For example:
what? - What? Which?
where? - Where? Where?
why? - Why?
which? - which?
who? - Who?
how? - How?
when? - When?
Special question formula:
Question words + general question?
"Where do they go to every summer?"
"When do they go to Sochi?"
Special question to the subject.
"Who goes to Sochi every summer?"
We will consider this type of special question separately, since it has a different structure:
Who/What + rewrite the sentence without a subject.
Attention!!! The most important thing is Who/what - 3rd person, singular! Do you remember that in the Present Simple in this case the ending “-s/-es” is added to the verb!
We get: "Who goes to Sochi every summer?"
