TYPES OF QUESTIONS
In English, there are two main types of questions which are;
- Yes / No Questions
- Wh – Questions
YES / NO QUESTIONS
Yes / No questions are the questions which are answered yes or no. It means when we are asking yes/no questions, we are expecting the answer, yes or no.
To form Yes/No questions, we use one of these verbs: auxiliary verbs ( be, do and have ) or modal verbs ( can, may,etc.).
We can not use questions words like what, how, why, who, etc. whilw making Yes/No questions.
FORMING YES/NO QUESTIONS
Yes / No questions are made, using the verb (am, is, are, was, were, have, had, do, does, did, can, will, should etc.) at the beginning of a sentence. Namely, subject and verb change their position in statement and question.
With An Auxiliary Verb ( “Be” or “Do” or “Have” ) or Modal Verb
With “Do”
The verb “ Do ” has two forms in the present; do and does.
The verb “ Do ” has one form in the past; did.
| Subject | Present Form “Do” | Past Form “Do” |
| I, You, We, You, They | do | did |
| He, She, It | does | did |
Rules:
1. If there is no any auxiliary verbs in a sentence, we use “do” as an auxiliary verb. Question form is
Do ( as an auxiliary verb ) + Subject + Main Verb + ….
| Sentence | Question |
| I put the keys on the table. | Do I put the keys on the table? |
| She gets up early in mornings. | Does she get up early in mornings? |
| Coffee grows in Brazil. | Does coffee grow in Brazil? |
| You like spend time at home. | Do you like spend time at home? |
| They write letter to me. | Do they write letter to me? |
| We drank milk. | Did we drink milk? |
| He cleaned his room. | Did he clean his room? |
ATTENTION:
1. In Simple Present Tense, we add the suffix -s or -es at the end of the verbs for the third singular subjects ( He, She, It ) .
On the other hand, we use first forms of the verbs for other subjects ( I, You, We, You, They).
2. Although we add the suffix -s at the end of the verb for the third singular subjects in positive sentences, We remove the suffix -s at the end of the verb in questions and negative sentences because of being used ‘does’ or ‘doesn’t’ as an auxiliary verb.
3. In Simple Past Tense, any auxiliary verbs aren’t used in positive sentences like in simple present tense and the second form of the main verb ( V2) is used. ‘ Did or did not’ is used as a auxiliary verb in negative and question sentences and the main verb remains simple ( V1) at this time. In other words, if the verb is in the past tense, we add did and put the main verb in its base form in negative and question sentences.
4. In Simple Past Tense, to change regular verbs into its past tense form, we generally add -d, -ed, or -ied at the end of the verbs according to their last syllable ( such as like–liked, work–worked ). However, for some verbs, we use their irregular forms to make them past form ( such as begin–began, give–gave ).
2. If we want to make a negative yes/no question with “do”, question form is
Do ( do, does, did ) + NOT + Subject + Main Verb + ….
| Sentence | Question |
| This film does not ( doesn’t ) start at 8 o’clock. | Doesn’t the film start at 8 o’clock? |
| You don’t like jumping. | Don’t You like jumping? |
| She didn’t want to eat chocolate. | Didn’t she want to eat choclate? |
| They don’t give money. | Don’t they give money? |
| We didn’t trust him. | Didn’t we trust him? |
3. When we are replying the question, we can use short or long form for the answer. Answer forms are;
Yes + Subject + Auxiliary Verb ( + … )
No + Subject + Auxiliary Verb + Not ( + …. )
| Question | Answer |
| Do you prefer your coffee black? | Yes. / Yes, I do. / Yes, I prefer my coffee black. |
| Do they always criticize you? | No. / No, they don’t. / No, they don’t criticize me. |
| Does it work loudly? | Yes. / Yes, it does. / Yes, it works loudly. |
| Does she like swimming? | No. / No, she doesn’t. / No, she doesn’t like swimming. |
| Did we visit our relatives? | Yes./ Yes, we did. / Yes, we visited our relatives. |
| Did he take a new car? | No. / No, she didn’t. / No, she didn’t take a new car. |
( generally short form is used as an answer )
YES/NO QUESTIONS WITH PRESENT FORM OF ” DO ( DO/DOES ) “
YES/NO QUESTIONS WITH PAST FORM OF ” DO ( DID ) “
