FORMING QUESTIONS
(a) Examine the following sentences:
She is intelligent Is she intelligent?
I am late> Am I late
They are clever> Are they clever?
He was absent> Was he absent?
The children were safe> Were the children safe?
All these sentences use the different forms of Be as main verbs. You will notice that in forming interrogatives we have shifted th verb to the front position. Note the word order.
Affirmative Subject +Verb +Complement
Sentence he was absent
Interrogative verb+ subject+ complement
Sentence was+ he+ absent?
(b) Similarly, when we use have, has, had as main verbs, we shift the verb to the front position to form interrogatives.
Affirmative Interrogative
He has money. Has he money?
They have good books Have they good books in the library
in the library.
She Had fever had she fever?
The word order here is the same as that indicated in (a) above. We can also form interrogatives of these sentences by using do, does or did as helping verbs.
Affirmative Interrogative
Has he money? Does he have money?
Do they have good books? Have they good books
in the library? in the library?
Had she fever? Did she have fever?
The word order in this case is:
Helping verb. Subject. Main verb. Comp. /Object
Does he have money?
(c) All other main verbs require the use of do or does in the present tense, and did in the past tense to form interrogatives. The word order is the same as that indicated above. As in the case of negatives, interrogatives, can also be formed in stages.
George works. (George does Does George
hard work hard) work hard
Children play. (Children do play Do children play
here) here?
He failed. ( He did fail) Did he fail?
(d) Examine the following sentences:
Affirmative. Interrogative
They are playing. Are they playing?
She is sleeping. Is she sleeping?
He was studying. Was he studying?
She has gone away. Has she gone away?
They have started a new. Have they started a new
business? business
He had caught cold. Had he caught cold?
You can help us. Can you help us?
I must leave now. Must I leave now?
We shall stay here. Shall we stay here?
All these sentences make use of auxiliaries. When we form interrogatives the auxiliary is shifted to the front position. This applies to all sentences using auxiliaries .The word order here is the same as that indicated in (b) above.
The questions we have discussed so far are all Yes/No questions. They are so called because they can be answered in either Yes or No.
Negative questions.
Note the following examples:
Is she playing? Is she not playing?
Are they studying? Are they not studying?
Was he on leave? Was he not on leave?
Am I in time? Am I not in time?
Has he finished? Has he not finished?
Can you swim? Can you not swim?
Has he finished? Has he not finished?
Have they good books? Have they no good books?
Note that in all these sentences the negative question is formed by putting not immediately after the subject. The word order is as follows:
(a) When is, am, are, was, were, have, has, had are used as mainverbs.
(i) in simple questions: Verb + subject + object/complement
Am I in time?
(ii) in negative questions: Verb + subject +not+ complement
Am I not in time?
(b) When auxiliaries are used,
(i) in simple Helping
verb+subject + main. verb + object/ complement
questions Is she playing badminton?
(ii) in negative Helping verb+subject+not+verb+
object/complement questions not playing badminton?
questions Is not she playing badminton
Contractions in negative questions. In spoken English not is contracted to n't and joined to the main verb/ auxiliary verb placed before the subject
(a) Be
Questions
Is she coming?
Was he sleeping?
Were they running?
Are you listening?
Was she present?
Are you angry?
Is your wife fat?
NEGATIVE QUESTIONS
Is she not coming?
Was he not sleeping?
Were they not run ning?
Are you not listening?
Was she not present?
Are you not angry?
Is your wife not fat?
CONTRACTED FORM
Isn't she coming?
Wasn't he sleeping?
Weren't they run ning?
Aren't you listen ing?
Wasn't she present?
Aren't you angry?
Isn't your wife fat?
(b) Have
QUESTIONS
Has he left?
Have they read it?
Had he fallen ill?
Has she a pen?
Have you an umbrella?
Had he a good job there?
NEGATIVE QUESTIONS
Has he not left?
Have they not read it?
Had he not fallen ill?
Has she not any pen?
Have you not any umbrella?
Had he not a good job there?
CONTRACTED FORM
Hasn't he left?
Haven't they read it?
Hadn't he fallen ill?
Hasn't she a pen?
Haven't you an umbrella?
Hadn't he a good job there?
(c) Other auxiliaries
Do you hear me? Do you not hear me? Don't you hear me?
Did she not know you? Did she not know you? Didn't she know you?
Does he understand Does he not understand Doesn't he not understand
English English English
Can you help me? Can you not help me? Can't you help me?
May I go now? May I not go now? Mayn't I go now?
Must we wait? Must we not wait? Mustn't we wait?
Shall we stop? Shall we not stop? Shan't we stop?
Will he sell it? Will he not sell it? Won't he sell it?
Forming questions with question words.
(a) We have seen how Yes/No questions are formed.
Now let us see how questions are formed by using what we call question-words.
Section (A) section (B)
Where is he? He is at home
Who is Mr. Smith? He is a friend of mine
Why was he here? He was here for meeting
How is your father now? He is better
Each of these questions begins with a question word, where, who why, how. Each seeks information that cannot be given in a simple yes or no.
Section B of the table indicates the information required by each of these questions. Look at the first question again. Where is he?
Where requires information about the place. This is answered by the phrase at home. The following table sets out the question-words and the information sought by them and also possible short answers.