QUESTION

Akis Laalem

QUESTION

A.      In questions, we usually put the subject after the first verb: 

Will Tom be here tomorrow?           Have you been working hard?           When was the house built?

      subject   +   verb                                  verb      +     subject

Tom	will		Will	Tom?
You	have		Have	you?
The house	was		Was	the house?

 Remember that the subject comes after the first verb:

Is Katherine working today?             (not Is working Katherine)

B.       In present simple questions, we use do/does:

Do you live near here?                          What time does the film start?

You	live		Do	you live?
The film	starts		Does	the film start?

Did you sell your car?            Why did the train stop?

       In past simple questions, we use did:

You	sold		Did	you sell?
The train	stopped		Did	the train stop?

But do not use do/does/did if who/what etc. is the subject of the sentence. Compare:

Who subject	Who object
Somebody phoned Emma.	Emma phoned somebody.
subject	Object
Who phoned Emma?	Who did Emma phone?

In these examples, who/what etc. is the subject:

Who wants something to eat?          (not who does want)

What happened to you last night? (not what did happen)

How many people came to the meeting?               (not did come)

Which bus goes to the centre?          (not does go)            

C.  Note the position of prepositions in questions beginning with Who/What/Which/Where …?

You can use preposition + Whom in formal style:

    To whom do you wish to speak?

D.  Isn’t it …? / Didn’t you …? Etc. (negative questions)

We use negative questions especially to show surprise:

Didn’t you hear the doorbell? I rang it three times.

Or when we expect the listener to agree with us:

Haven’t we met before?   Yes, I think we have.

Note the meaning of yes and no in Yes (=Yes, I want to go)  answers to negative questions:

Don’t you want to go?	Yes (=Yes, I want to go)
	No (=No, I don’t want to go)

Note the word order in negative questions beginning Why …?

Why don’t we eat out tonight?                     (not Why we don’t eat)

Why wasn’t Emma at work yesterday?      (not Why Emma wasn’t)