ASKING / ANSWERING QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS: There are two ways of asking questions in English.  

1.  YES/NO QUESTION

     These questions are often made with:

-     the verb TO BE or,

-      other auxiliaries ( be, have, do, can, may, must, will, etc.) and require a negative or affirmative short answer: 

                                   YES/NO  +  Subject  +  Auxiliary.

Using the verb TO BE:    

                                   BE  +   SUBJECT  +   OBJECT ?

Example:  Is Brad Pitt a good actor?   Yes, he is./No, he isn’t.

Using AUXILIARIES:    

                          AUXILIARY+ SUBJECT + VERB + (OBJECT)?

 Example:  Will your mother go to the movie?  Yes, she will./ No, she won’t.

When there is no auxiliary in the sentence and you want to form a question, use:

                    do  (present tense),

                    does  (present tense with he/she/it) or,

                    did  (past tense) and use  the infinitive of the verb without to.                 

  Example:   Tom Cruise played in Eyes Wide Shut.

                    Did Tom Cruise play in Eyes Wide Shut? Yes, he did./No, he didn’t.

2.    INFORMATION QUESTIONS

Question words are used when we look for specific information.

There are :   who, whose, what,  which, when, where, why, how,

         how  much, how many, how often, how…

The answer will be an informative and a more complete one.

                   QUESTION WORD + BE + SUBJECT + (OBJECT)?

                                    Who        is     Steven Spielberg?  

                                    He is a film producer.

Other auxiliaries (be, have, do, can, may, must, will, etc).

                QUESTION WORD+AUXILIARY+SUBJECT+VERB+ …

Example:  When will we go to the movie? We will go on Friday.