FORMING QUESTIONS

IN ENGLISH

In my opinion the ability to form questions correctly is the hallmark of a fluent speaker of English. It is NOT DIFFICULT to form questions correctly but it is a bit complicated. You simply have to follow the steps explained here. And don't worry about any theory.

My explanation of the subject puts questions in two groups -

Group A and Group B.

If you follow this treatment you will have control of this essential subject.

Please see - Forming Questions: Some Comments.

When the affirmative sentence contains an auxiliary we form a question by inverting the person and the verb (we turn them around).

For example: affirmative - "I am"

Question:   inverted  "Am I?"

Examples of auxiliaries:

can, must, shall, will, would, could, should, have, ought to, may and might.

I place these sentences in -

GROUP A.

N.B. in everyday English ‘ought’ is not used in questions, nor in contractions.

Using the auxiliaries  ‘be’, ‘have’ o ‘will’ –

* In this case 'got' is usual and makes the question easier to understand.

GROUP B.

When the sentence does NOT contain an auxiliary including  ‘be’, do, ‘have’ or  ‘will’ we must use the auxiliary verb

'to do'

We do not invert the words in GROUP B questions.

I prefer to call the verb ‘to do’ a ‘super-auxiliary’ because it has this special role in forming questions. No other verb has this power.

You may remember the conjugation of the verb ‘to do’, which you probably learned long ago –

"To do" also has a normal separate existence, apart from its use as a super - auxiliary. For example –

I do this every day

She does things like that all the time

We do as much work as we can

‘to do’ also functions as an emphatic –

Sentence: ‘You don’t like cheese.’

Reply: ‘I do like cheese’ or, ‘Yes, I do!’

Sentence: ‘He doesn’t work now.’ –

Reply: ‘He does work.’ Or, ‘Yes, he does!’

In other words, there is nothing new about 'to do'.

When you use ‘to do’ as the  super-auxiliary you simply choose the person and tense you need

and add the name of the active verb.

As usual, when I say ‘the name of the verb’ I mean the infinitive  without ‘to’.

The name of the verb NEVER CHANGES, so the super auxiliary ‘to do’

has to express the required tense.

You must resist the temptation to use the past tense of your active verb - or the 's' of the third person singular in its present tense - when you use 'to do'. Remember: 'to do' carries the tense and it does all the work.

Always think of the name of the verb and you will be correct.

Examples: [sentences that contain no auxiliary]

In each question the word the word in bold is the name of the verb.

This list demonstrates a strange point –

in formulating questions we can only use ‘to do’ in the present and simple past tenses.

This makes things easier for you, especially if you carefully note what happens to the other tenses –

• Formal future: uses ‘will’ and accordingly belongs to Group A.
• 
  
• Informal future: uses ‘to be’ and belongs to Group A.
• 
  
• Present perfect: uses ‘to have’ and belongs to Group A.
• 
  
• Past perfect: uses ‘to have’ and belongs to Group A
• 
  
• Present progressive: uses ‘to be’ and belongs to Group A
• 
  
• Past progressive: uses ‘to be’ and belongs to Group A.

This means, of course, that in the tenses which fall into Group A the questions are formed by inverting the words, as explained above.

NOTE  ‘To have’ as an auxiliary:

this verb is a hybrid. We can use it as in Group A or we can use ‘to do’. For example:

1.   Inversion [Group A] –

‘Have you a spare moment?’

‘Have you a hammer I can borrow?’

2.   To do. –

‘Do you have a spare moment?’,

‘Do you have a hammer I can borrow?’

‘Do you have a pencil?’ ‘Does she have a new boyfriend?’

HOWEVER - in modern English this doesn't matter much because there is a third and more popular way - the use of  'to get'.

3. To get -

‘Have you got a pencil?’ ‘Has she got a new boyfriend?’

As the lesson about verb to get explains, 'to get' is still considered to be informal but it is more popular than 1. and 2. above.

Generally I prefer to use ‘to do’ as it sounds clearer and stronger: it helps to announce that what you are saying is a question.

Questioning Words -

When we ask for a reason, a description, an explanation or other information we use the 'questioning words' -

who, where, why, when, what, which, how

usually with inverted words as in Group A. Normally we use an auxiliary with inverted words. For example -

NEGATIVE QUESTIONS:

A negative question is when you ask,

'Isn't that your dog?' instead of 'Is that your dog?'

In negative questions we must use the negative 'not' immediately after the auxiliary word and it must usually be contracted:

‘Wouldn’t you help us?’  instead of 'Would you help us?'

‘Didn’t you like the movie?’ instead of 'Did you like the movie?'

‘Shouldn’t you leave now?’

‘Haven’t you caused enough trouble?’

Personally I don't like negative questions very much and I don't recommend them.They are used to show you have a prior opinion about something, or in rhetorical questions.

They are also very good for starting arguments and fights - see the last two examples.

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