Depending on what sort of information we want, we use one of the following question words:

1. Who wrote that book? (person)
2. What is your name? (thing)
3. Which book is yours? (thing) - see below
4. When did you arrive? (time)
5. Where do you live? (place)
6. Why are you doing that? (reason)
7. How can I find out? (manner)

What and which can often be used with the same meaning. When the person asking the question has a restricted number of choices in mind, s/he will use which. When s/he is not thinking of a restricted number of choices, what is used:

1. Which main course (from the menu) are you going to have?
2. Which department (of this company) do you work in?
3. What name is on the envelope?
4. What number shall I call?

Whom

Whom is a more formal way of saying who, and is not common when speaking. If we choose to put our question word after a preposition, then we must use whom:

1. With whom did you go?

However, this is very unusual, and we would normally avoid this by putting the preposition at the end of the phrase:

1. Who did you go with?

Apart from these single words, we combine two or more words to find out other kinds of information:

• How old are you?
• What time is it?
• How many children have you got?
• How long did it take?

For questions with auxiliary verbs like does she or is he the auxiliary verb comes before the subject. Remember Q A S I or A S I

If the auxiliary verb is after the subject then the sentence becomes a statement

In English a simple question such as: "What are you doing?" could seem impolite unless you are speaking to someone you know very well. If you are speaking to a stranger or someone important then you should try to be more polite. Read this to see how to ask polite questions?

What do you think about these sentences? Can they be improved?

How long has it not been raining?

Is there any difference in meaning or use of these questions:

1. Do you work here?
2. Don't you work here?

Question Form

Statement form. Remember SAI

Question Form Drill

Read this script many times to drill the form

1. Is it good? Yes it is good.
2. Does it work? Yes it does work.
3. Have you seen it? Yes, I have seen it.

Common mistakes with question form

Be careful of question forms inside another sentence. This is usually incorrect.
Say: I don't know what this means.
(Not "I don't know what does this mean")

1. Can you tell me, where is the bank?
2. Do you know, what is his name?
3. Did you ask me, what day is it?
4. Can you see what has happened?
5. They ask me where I come from.

Exercise 1: Ask an appropriate question for the response

1. A steak, please.
2. Oh, I stayed at home and watched TV.
3. She is reading a book at the moment.
4. We are going to visit France.
5. I usually get up at 7 o'clock.
6. No, he is single.
7. For about 2 years.
8. I was washing up when he arrived.

pronunciation of Questions

Sometimes with question words, the auxiliary verb and the subject are pronounced as a single sound without stress because the question is clear from the question word. When there is no question word and the question starts with the auxiliary verb the sounds are clearly pronounced with stress to form the question. Eg:

1. Where do you live? /djǝ/
2. Do you live here? /Du: Ju:/
3. Do you come here often? /Ju:/
4. How often Do you come here ? /Du: Ju:/