ASKING QUESTIONS

CANGAS MARTINEZ
ARELI
 INTRODUCTION

Asking questions is one of the most crucial skills in a language. It

can help you move a conversation forward and is a great way of
encouraging native speakers to teach you new things. Knowing
how to ask a question in English correctly will help you become
more comfortable when speaking and writing.
 YES/NO QUESTIONS

Yes / no questions in English are questions that

expect a “yes” or “no” answer (and not information,
like wh questions). Yes/no questions always start with
an auxiliary. For example: Do you like pop music? /
Do you like pop music?
 USE OF YES/NO QUESTIONS

These questions have this name because to

answer them it is only necessary to say YES
or NO. We use them in conversations
normally to confirm or rule out facts or ideas.
FORMING YES/NO QUESTIONS WITH AUXILIARY VERBS

In order to form a Yes/No Question, we must use one of these verb:

BE (AM, IS, ARE, WAS, WERE)

DO (DOES, DID)
HAVE (HAS, HAD)
MODAL VERBS (CAN, COULD, MAY, SHOULD, ETC.)
 THE RULES
3. If the sentence includes a verb which is not the verb "to
be" and doesn't include a helping (auxiliary) verb, the
1. If the main verb of the sentence is "to
transformation is more complex.
be", simply invert the subject and the verb
to be
EXAMPLES: a. If the verb is in the present tense, add either do or does and
THEY ARE AMERICAN. — ARE THEY AMERICAN? put the main verb in its base form:
THEY ARE NICE. — ARE THEY NICE? 1. do if the subject is the first person singular, second person
singular, first person plural, second person plural and third
person plural (I, you, we, they)
Example:
2. If the sentence includes a main verb and I like apples. — Do you like apples?
another or other helping (auxiliary) verb(s), 2. does if the subject is the third person singular (he, she, it).
invert the subject and the (first) helping Example:
(auxiliary) verb. Nancy reads a lot. — Does Nancy read a lot?
b.If the verb is in the past tense, add did and put the main verb
EXAMPLES: in its base form:
NANCY HAS BEEN WORKING ALL NIGHT LONG. — HAS NANCY Example:
BEEN WORKING ALL NIGHT LONG?
He discovered the truth. — Did he discover the truth?
HE WILL BE READING THE BOOK. — WILL HE BE READING THE
BOOK?
 HOW TO ANSWER A YES/NO QUESTION?
Short Answer Long Answer
Other than saying 'yes' or 'no' to answer a Yes/No question, there Occasionally, in more formal situations, we use yes/no + subject +
are some other more informal alternatives. verb.

Or even longer answers, like:

 YES/NO QUESTIONS STRUCTURE IN 12 TENSES
In the structure we must use the appropriate auxiliary for each tense both in questions and in answers.

Auxilliary + subject + verb + complement +?

PRESENT SIMPLE Do/Does + subject + verb + ?

In these questions we use the auxiliary DO (with the
pronouns I, you, we, they) or DOES (with he, she, it).

PRESENT CONTINUOUS Verb to be + subject + verb-ing + ? In these questions we use ARE, AM, IS

PRESENT PERFECT Have/Has + subject +verb Past participle + ?

In these questions we use the auxiliary HAVE(with the
pronouns I, you, we, they) or HAS (with he, she, it).

In these questions we use the auxiliary

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS Have/Has + subject + been + verb-ing + ? HAVE BEEN(with the pronouns I, you,
we, they) or HAS BEEN (with he, she, it).
PAST SIMPLE Did + subject + verb + ? In these questions we use the auxiliary DID.

PAST CONTINUOUS
In these questions we use the auxiliary WERE (with
Was/Were + subject + verb-ing + ? the pronouns you, we, they) or WAS (with I, he,
she, it).

PAST PERFECT Had + subject +verb Past participle + ? In these questions we use the auxiliary HAD

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS Had + subject + been + verb-ing + ?

In these questions we use the auxiliary HAD
BEEN.

FUTURE SIMPLE Will/Shall + subject + verb + ?

In these questions we use the auxiliary SHALL (with the
pronouns I, you, we, they) or WILL with everyone.

In these questions we use the auxiliary SHALL BE (with the

FUTURE CONTINUOUS Will/Shall+ subject + be + verb-ing + ? pronouns I, you, we, they) or WILL BE with everyone.

FUTURE PERFECT
In these questions we use the auxiliary SHALL HAVE
Will/Shall + subject + have + verb-Past participle + ? (with the pronouns I, you, we, they) or WILL HAVE with
everyone.

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS Will/Shall + subject + have been + verb-ing + ? In these questions we use the auxiliary SHALL
HAVE BEEN (with the pronouns I, you, we, they)
or WILL HAVE BEEN with everyone.
 YES/NO STRUCTURE WITH MODAL VERBS
Auxilliary + subject + verb + complement +?

MODAL VERB Modal verb+ subject + verb + ? We use the auxiliary verb that we need CAN, COULD,
SHOULD, WOULD, etc.

Can he play the piano?

Yes, he can. / No, he can’t

Should I use this paint for an outdoor table?

EXAMPLES Yes, I should. / No, I shouldn't

Must he pay all these taxes?

Yes, he must. / No, he musn'ts
 EXAMPLES WITH 12 TENSES
1
3 5
PRESENT SIMPLE
Do you have breakfast every day?
Yes, I do. / No, I don’t.
2 FUTURE SIMPLE
Will he cook tonight?
4 PAST
CONTINUOS
6
Does she watch TV at night? Yes, he will. / No, he won’t.
Yes, she does. / No, she doesn’t. Was she working now? FUTURE
PAST SIMPLE PRESENT
Yes, she was.
CONTINUOS CONTINUOS
Did you see the movie last
night? Is she working now? Will he be cooking tonight?
Yes, I did. / No, I didn’t. Yes, she is. / No, she isn’t Yes, he will be. / No, he won’t be.
Are you working now?
Yes, I am. / No, I am not.
7 9 11
PRESENT PERFECT 8
FUTURE PERFECT
Will he have cooked tonight?
10 PAST PERFECT 12
Has she watched TV at night? Yes, he will. / No, he won’t. CONTINUOS
Yes, she has. / No, she hasn’t.
PAST PERFECT PRESENT PERFECT Had she been working now?
FUTURE PERFECT
Yes, she had been.
CONTINUOS CONTINUOS
Had you seen the movie last
night? Have you been working now?
Will he have been cooking tonight?
Yes, I had. / No, I had not. Yes, I have been. / No, I have not been.
Yes, he will been. / No, he won’t been.
 NEGATIVE YES/NO QUESTION

NEGATIVE YES/NO QUESTIONS: USES EXAMPLES

We usually use negative Yes/No Questions:
 WH - QUESTIONS
Wh questions are characterized by beginning with interrogative
pronouns whose first letters are always W and H, except for
How.

These questions are used to obtain specific information

necessary to maintain a conversation or to get somewhere, for
example: the name of a person, the address of a museum that
we want to visit, it also allows us to know the date, time or
reasons for something that is happening at the moment.
WH QUESTIONS
 STRUCTURE
The wh questions usually have the same order, but with different structures, of which 3 predominate
because they are the most frequently used

1 WH QUESTION + VERB + PRONOUN + NOUN + ?

2 WH QUESTION + AUXILIARY VERB + PRONOUN + MAIN VERB + ?

3 WH QUESTION + NOUN + AUXILIARY VERB + PRONOUN + MAIN VERB + ?

As can be seen in the three previous structures, in all cases the sentence begins with a wh question, and
depending on what we want to ask, we will order the other elements such as verbs, pronouns and nouns.
 EXAMPLES

1 2
WHEN
WHO
When does Anna arrive?
Who is at the door? When can I see you again?
Who wants an apple? When was the race?

WHERE
Where does Natasha live?
Where were the keys?
Where have you been?
3 4 WHY
Why is the street closed?
Why did Alex leave?
Why haven’t you called?
 EXAMPLES

WHAT
What is this?
What did she say?
What have they done?
5 6 HOW
How does this work?
How was your mother?
How will he win the race?

WHICTH
Which author do you enjoy?
Which river is longer, the Nile or
the Amazon?
7 8 WHOSE
Whose idea was that?
Whose child has a cough?
Whose book is on the table?
Which street leads downtown?
 CHOICE QUESTIONS
Multiple choice questions are fundamental survey questions which
provides respondents with multiple answer options. Primarily, multiple
choice questions can have single select or multi select answer options.

These are the most fundamental questions of a survey or questionnaire

where the respondents are expected to select one or more than one
option from the multiple answer options.
 PARTS OF MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
ANSWER DISTRACTORS
STEM
EXAMPLE
The correct answer - This should he other incorrect responses which
A stem, that’s the question i.e. a
be relevant to the stem and are called ‘distractors’ - Ideally,
problem or an incomplete statement -
shouldn't consist of too many create 4 distractors and should be in
Make sure that you create a crisp,
qualifiers like "always" and line with the correct answer. These
grammatically error-free and simple
"some”. Use phrases as options distractors should usually be
stem which has relevant information.
when the stem is an incomplete common misconceptions that your
statement. target audience may have.
 TYPES OF MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1 2 3
SINGLE SELECT MULTIPLE
CHOICE QUESTIONS MULTI-SELECT MULTIPLE DROPDOWN MENU MULTIPLE
In these types of questions, the respondents CHOICE QUESTIONS CHOICE QUESTIONS
can pick only one option among the In this type of multiple choice question, the Another type of MCQ, dropdown, allows
predetermined options. These questions are respondents can choose more than one respondents to choose an answer from a list
very much effective in finding out a user’s option. of choices presented in the dropdown menu.
primary preference.

4 5 6
THUMBS UP/DOWN MULTIPLE RANK ORDER MULTIPLE CHOICE IMAGE/PICTURE BASED
CHOICE QUESTION QUESTION MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
Primarily used to elicit respondents’ This multiple choice question lets the Another visual variety of multiple choice
opinions, the thumbs up/down question respondents order answer options as per questions, a picture choice question, allows
helps them to make a quick choice between their preference. for visualization of the answer options.
what they like and dislike.
 EXAMPLE

1 2 3

4 5 6
INTONATION IN QUESTIONS
Intonation is the music of the language; it depends on the pitch of your voice. It is
crucial in American English because the rise and fall of your voice can convey
meanings in many ways.

Intonation is about how we say things. Our voice can rise and fall during our speech
depending on the meaning we want to convey to the listener. Therefore, we can divide
intonation into two patterns as:

Rising intonation is when the pitch and tone of your voice

rise at the end of the words or sentences

falling intonation is when they go down.

 EXAMPLES
WH - QUESTIONS

In wh- questions that ask for new

information, the voice usually falls at the
end of the question.
YES/NO QUESTIONS
In yes/no question, the voice usually
rises at the end of the question.

DEMOSTRATIVE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/QUO4n27UcIE

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