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Forming Questions, Part One:
Subject Questions |
It would be impossible to go through life without asking
questions. So, learning to form questions correctly is
an important exercise for English learners. But it can
also be one of the most frustrating ones.
There are a few reasons for this.
First, many questions use auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary
verbs are known as “helping verbs." We add them to main
verbs to help make our meaning clearer. The verbs “do,”
“be,” and “have” act as auxiliary verbs in many kinds of
questions.
Second, there are about six kinds of questions in the
English language. In earlier Everyday Grammar programs,
we told you about three complex kinds: tag questions,
reported questions and indirect questions.
But we have not yet told you about the three most basic
kinds of questions: subject questions, object questions
and yes or no questions. Each kind follows its own
grammar rules.
Today, we’ll tell you about subject questions.
What are subject questions?
Subject questions are questions we ask when we want
information about the subject of something. The subject
of a sentence is the person or thing that performs the
action.
We use subject questions to ask who or which person or
thing does something: for example, “Who rode the train
to work?” and “Which fruits make the best juice?”
Subject questions follow the same subject-verb structure
as statements. “Who rode the train to work?” for
example, has the same structure as its statement form
would have: “I rode the train the work.” Unlike some
kinds of questions, we do not invert the subject and
verb in subject questions.
You can usually identify a subject question by looking
for the word “who” or “which” at the beginning of it.
But, not all questions beginning with these words are
subject questions. We’ll say more on that later.
Simple tenses
You may have noticed that the examples “Who rode the
train to work?” and “Which fruits make the best juice?”
used simple verb tenses. Subject questions often use the
simple tenses: simple present, simple past and simple
future.
However, sometimes subject questions do use other verb
tenses, usually the present continuous or past
continuous. In those cases, you will see auxiliary verbs
before the main verbs. Let’s hear examples of present
and past continuous. Here is the present continuous:
Who is coming with me to pick up the supplies?
The auxiliary verb “be” appears as “is.” And here’s a
past continuous:
Who was watching the dog when it got out?
The auxiliary verb “be” appears as “was.”
Using the auxiliary
Despite that subject questions with these verb tenses
use the auxiliary verb “be,” subject questions with
simple tenses do not use auxiliary verbs when the
questions are positive.
Think back to one of the examples of a positive subject
question. We did not say, “Who did ride the train to
work?” We said, “Who rode the train to work?”
But suppose we wanted to ask a negative subject
question. We would need to use the auxiliary verb “do.”
And, the auxiliary appears immediately after the
question word “who” or “which.” Listen to a subject
question in its negative form:
Who didn’t ride the train to work?
The original question used the past tense verb “rode.”
So, the negative version used “didn’t ride,” which is
also the past tense.
Now let’s change another positive subject question into
the negative. The question is “Who likes pizza?” Notice
that it’s in the present tense. Let’s hear its negative
version:
Who doesn’t like pizza?
Notice that the negative version “doesn’t like” is also
in the present tense.
Avoiding confusion
Throughout your English learning, you may have seen
positive questions that began with “who” or “which” but
still use the auxiliary verb “do.” Listen to an example:
Who does she want to write about?
But do not be confused by this. This question is not
asking about the subject. It is asking about the object.
The answer, for example, might be “She wants to write
about Malala Yousafzai.” Here, then, the question is
really asking about the object, which is “Malala
Yousafzai,” not about the subject, which is “she.” If it
were a subject question, it would be something like
this:
Who wants to write about Malala Yousafzai?
Again, notice the auxiliary verb “do” is not present.
Making subject questions
OK, now that you know the key features of a subject
question, let’s hear a couple of statements and think
about how to make them into subject questions.
Sherry broke the glass.
“Sherry” is the subject of the sentence. “Broke” is the
verb and it’s in simple past. If we wanted to ask a
question where the answer is the subject (“Sherry”), the
question would be:
Who broke the glass?
Here’s another statement. Take a listen and think about
how to make it into a subject question:
This motorbike gets the best gas mileage.
“This motorbike” is the subject. The verb is “gets” and
is simple present. If we wanted to ask a question where
the answer is the subject (“this motorbike”), we would
ask:
Which motorbike gets the best gas mileage?
Forming questions in English can be tricky but
understanding each kind can go a long way toward
improving your English.
Join us again next week to learn more about forming
questions.
I’m Alice Bryant.
Now, you try it! Make these sentences into subject
questions:
I want to help you choose a wedding dress.
That movie is my favorite so far this year.
He painted a beautiful mural on 2nd Street.
We didn't clean the bathroom or kitchen.
She is buying a new computer.
Alice Bryant wrote this story for Learning English. Caty
Weaver was the editor. |
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