Saturday, June 2, 2012

Question Form





Sam An Teng


Questions are formed in several ways in English; as,



1. TO BE

We simply reverse the positions of be and subject:

Form: 
  • To be + sub + complement?
For examples,
  • Are you Cambodian?
  • Were they your former colleagues?

2. AUXILIARY (BE/HAVE/DO)

We simply reverse the positions of auxiliary and subject:

Form: 
  • Auxiliary + subject + main verb?
For examples,
  • Is she working in a bank?
  • Do you like coffee?
  • Have you reviewed the lessons?

NOTE: When the sentence has no auxiliary verb, to make question we use “do”. For examples,
  • He likes Mary. --> Does he like Mary?
  • They went to Siem Reap. --> Did they go to Siem Reap?

3. MODAL VERBS

We simply reverse the positions of modal (can, could, may, might, must, should, will, would) and subject:

Form: 
  • Modal + subject + main verb?
For examples,
  • Can you fix the computer? No, I can’t.
  • When will we have lunch? At 1pm.

4. WH- IS THE SUBJECT

Use positive word order - not question word order.
Form: 
  • Wh- + verb ……?
For examples,
  • Sopheak wrote the letter.--> Who wrote the letter?
  • Sopheak won a scholarship. --> Who won the scholarship?
  • Russia is the biggest country in the world. --> What/Which is the biggest country in the world?

5. WITH PREPOSITIONS

In some questions we need to add PREPOSITION in order to make it meaningful.

For examples,
  • Where do you want to travel to?
  • Where do you come from?
  • What is this paper for?

6. TAG QUESTIONS

It is a statement followed by a mini-question. If the statement is positive, the mini-question (question tag) is negative. If the statement is negative, the mini-question (question tag) is positive.

Form:
  • Positive statement, negative tag?
  • Negative statement, positive tag?


For examples,
  • You are a student, aren't you?
  • She likes ice-cream, doesn't she?
  • You didn't read the news, did you?
  • They can't speak English, can they?
See more details here. 


7. INDIRECT QUESTIONS

Indirect question is a statement within another statement/question. Indirect questions are polite, longer forms of normal questions. 

Form:
  • a polite expression + a question [which has no subject/verb inversion like a normal question.]
For examples,

      Direct Question               --> Indirect Question
  • What is your name?    --> Can you tell me what your name is?
  • Where do you live?     --> I wonder if you can tell me where you live.
  • Do you like coffee?     --> I want to know if/whether you like coffee.
Here are some common polite expressions:
  • Do you know ………………………?
  • I wonder ……………
  • I can't remember ... …………
  • Could you tell me ... …………?
  • Would you mind telling me ... …………?
  • Would it be possible for you to... …………?
  • Is there any chance you could... …………?
  • I don't suppose you could... …………
  • I'd like to know ... …………
  • I can't remember... …………
See more details here.

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