Interrogative sentences in English. Types of questions in English in examples 5 sentences in interrogative form in English

Questions in our speech occupy no less place than statements. It is especially necessary to know the construction of such constructions in a foreign language, because they allow you to clarify important points, eliminate misunderstandings, and simply make new acquaintances or find out how to get to some attraction. Today our task is to understand what interrogative sentences are in English. , and learn to compose them yourself.

For beginners it may seem difficult that the English language contains several at once and has special rules construction of each of them. Yes, here you cannot beat the statement with a different intonation and get a ready-made question. Yes, you will have to memorize certain combinations and understand when to use them. But in fact, all this grammar is perhaps the simplest thing that is in the rules of the English language. We will analyze each subtype of questions separately, and later we will reduce them to a common basis.

General questions

The simplest and most frequently used type of construction in speech, which is notable for the fact that it does not require a detailed answer. The statement for such questions looks like this: “ Yes, I did / am / will do" or " No, I didn’t/I do/will do».

The composition of a general interrogative construction depends on which predicate is used in the original sentence. If the statement contains a verb tobe in any form, then you just need to change the word order in the English sentence, putting the predicate itself in first place. At the same time, depending on which person the question is asked, the form of the pronoun changes. The predicate of the answer is tobe.

In more common cases, when the predicate is expressed by any other verb, to turn the statement into an interrogative sentence it is enough to use an auxiliary verb do . This word is put first, and then they simply retell the original expression, without changing the original word order! Please note that the auxiliary word appears in the answer as a predicate.

Grammar notes : According to generally accepted rules, in English animals are classified as inanimate objects, so it is necessary to use the pronoun it. But there are exceptions to all rules, so when talking about their favorite pets, the British use the pronouns she or he. The following division is informally accepted: if the sex of the animal is unknown, use it; if known, use he/she, respectively.

Verb do used to formulate a question in the present or past tense ( did), while the word itself does not carry any semantic load, but acts only as a kind of intermediary. It is important to note that with a 3rd person subject, this assistant takes on the ending es, That's why again with predicate lettersno need to use!

If the question is posed to a sentence that contains a modal verb, the use of auxiliary constructions is not required.

Don’t be afraid of the two predicates; these are just designations for the same auxiliary do, will and the main verb. To make it easier for beginners to understand such constructions foreign language Let's look at specific examples.

From the examples it is clear that grammatically this is a compound predicate, but for simplicity we have designated it in the diagram as two parts.

In principle, questions of this type are quite easy to handle; we will only note the situation of their use with to be constructions.

Grammar notes: The interrogative word what can be used with an animate person when talking about his occupation. Compare.

In an interrogative sentence c whose, whichwhatkindof, after these words there may not be a predicate, but a subject or an object.

Selective type questions (Alternative)

Using such combinations, we can offer the interlocutor a choice of two different options in English. Such questions are constructed using a short preposition or(or) and can refer to any member of the sentence. Their structure consists of two phrases connected by the indicated preposition. Let's look at the examples given and their translations.

With a little practice, the formation of such structures will not be difficult.

Disjunctive questions

This subtype of interrogative sentences in English is a little similar to the previous one, but has a different shade of meaning and is built according to its syntactic structure. Such questions are rather clarifications, confirmations of actions and are translated into Russian by the expressions “ is not it? Truth? it is so?". In order to make this construction, you do not have to change the order of words. On the contrary, at the end of the original sentence, an additional phrase is formed “ tobe/do/will+pronoun».

It is not difficult to make such a proposal; you just need to pay attention to one nuance. If the original phrase contains a negation, then the additional construction will be in the affirmative form. The same rule is true for the reverse situation.

Grammar notes: if the affirmative sentence contains a pronoun I, then in the additional construction the form of the verb will be aren't't. If the sentence has a negative context, the addition is expressed in words Iam. The use of the phrase in this construction Iamnot practically never occurs.

In order not to go beyond political correctness, you should remember the use of this combination with collective pronouns.

At the end of this section, it is worth mentioning another type of questions called direct questions. They are asked using question words and refer exclusively to the subject. To create such a construction, you need to replace the subject with who or what.

Interrogative sentences in English - summary table

Let's summarize our knowledge and see how varieties of English interrogative sentences are formed at different times. This table will be a useful cheat sheet for practicing designs in practice.

All sentences in English express an affirmation, negation or question. Today we will focus on interrogative sentences, because it is with them that students often have difficulties.

There are only 5 types of questions in English. Today’s article is a review article, which means that we will briefly talk about each of the five types of questions, provide a table for downloading, links to detailed articles about each question, and, of course, a test.

Let's remember that in English there is a certain order of words in a sentence: first comes the subject, followed by the predicate, then the object and the rest of the sentence. But this word order is violated in the question. A question may begin with a question word or auxiliary verb(except for dividing questions), then comes the subject, predicate, object and the rest of the sentence. There are five types of questions in English:

General question

If the question must be answered “yes” or “no”, then it is a general question. It is also called “ Yes/No question" The general outline for such a question looks like this:

auxiliary or modal verb + subject + predicate + object + other parts of the sentence.

Do (auxiliary) you (subject) play (predicate) computer games (object) ? - Do you play computer games?

Can (modal verb) you (subject) do (predicate) it (object) for me ? -Can you do this for me?

Just don't forget that the verb to be In the present and simple past tenses, no auxiliary verbs are needed:

Are (verb to be) you (subject) at home (other members of the sentence)? - Are you home?

Was (verb to be) he (subject) at the cinema yesterday (other members of the sentence)? – Was he at the cinema yesterday?

• Read more about the general issue in the article “”.

And also questions about time Present Simple the teacher sorted it out Alex:

Special question

There is no longer a simple “yes” or “no” answer to such a question. It requires a detailed and detailed answer. A special question in English is different in that it can be asked to any member of a sentence. The word order in such questions is the same as in general, only one of the question words must be placed at the beginning:

• What? - What?
• When? - When?
• Where? - Where?
• Why? - Why?
• Which? - Which?

Please note that all question words begin with wh, which is why this type of question is also called “ Wh-questions”.

And this is what the formula for constructing a special question looks like:

question word + auxiliary or modal verb + subject + predicate + object + other parts of the sentence.

Where (question word) are (auxiliary) you (subject) going (predicate) ? - Where are you going?

What (question word) do (auxiliary) you (subject) want to read (predicate) ? -What do you want to read?

When (question word) did (auxiliary) you (subject) leave (predicate) the house (object) ? - When did you leave home?

• If you have studied the general question well, then you can proceed to the special one. We are sure that after reading our article “”, you will not have any difficulties with this type.

Alternative question

Look at the name of this type of question - “alternative” means that the question must have a choice between two options. This question can be asked of any member of the proposal. And most importantly, here you will always find a union or(or). The formula is the same as in the general question, but you must remember to put or where needed. Let's look at how we can ask alternative questions to such a sentence:

They finished writing the article at 5 p.m. They finished writing the article at 5 pm.

Did they finish writing the article in the morning or at night? – Did they finish writing the article in the morning or in the evening?

Did they finish writing or reading the article? – Have they finished writing or reading the article?

• If you need more material on this issue, then use the materials in the article “”.

Separated question

The word order in such a question is direct, as in a regular sentence. And only at the end of such a sentence we will encounter a question called tag. In Russian there is also such a question, and it sounds like this: “ is not it?» / « is not it?» / « Yes?. In order to form tag-question, the auxiliary verb and the subject must be placed at the end of the sentence. There are two ways to form such a question in English:

1. The beginning of the sentence is affirmative + a short negative question.

He reads a book, doesn't he? – He’s reading a book, isn’t he?

His friend is German, isn't he? – His friend is German, isn’t he?

2. The beginning of the sentence is negative + a short positive question.

She doesn't go to the church, does she? - She doesn't go to church, does she?

He is not at the meeting, is he? - He's not at the meeting, is he?

• Don't forget to read the article "". In it you will find interesting cases of using tag-question and many other examples.

And, as always, the teacher Alex in his video he will tell you this topic from the point of view of a native English speaker. The topic of dividing questions is the same, but from a slightly different angle.

Question to the subject

The easiest question to formulate. You need to take an affirmative sentence, remove the subject and replace it with who(who) or what(What). No auxiliary verbs are needed. There is only one nuance - in the present tense we add the ending - s to the verb.

Who invite s guests for the party? – Who invites guests to a party?

What make s do you feel upset? – What makes you sad?

What happened to us? – What happened to us?

• Even though the topic seems simple, we still advise you to look at the article “” for more detailed information.

That's all 5 types of questions in English. Having studied the methods of constructing them and downloaded our tablet, you can easily determine what question you have in front of you.

(*.pdf, 49 Kb)

Want to practice question types? Then take our test:

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Test

Types of questions in English 1

I'm in such a musical mood today! what if we compare English to music? The English language is just as melodic Do re mi fa sol la si...

English as music

• before– subject(that is, the one who performs the action);
• re- this is a predicate(verb, action);
• mi– addition or circumstance;
• F- auxiliary verbs(do, does, did... or linking verb);
• salt- question words(what? where? where? how? why? how much?);
• la– or (or) ;
• si(What, Who in questions specifically to the subject, who or what did the action).

For example:

I like music. – Do re mi;
I am listening to music.

Are you listening to music? – fa do re mi;
Do you like music? – fa do re mi.

English questions may sound different. I suggest listening to 5 different melodies - types of English questions.

General question (YesNo Questions) – Fa do re mi

As its name implies, these are questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.” Let's look at an example of this “melody” in the most common English verb tenses.

• Present Simple: Do you listen to music every day?
• Past Simple: Did you listen to music yesterday ?
• Future Simple: Will you listen to music tomorrow ?
• Present Continuous: Are you listening to music now?
• : Were you listening to music yesterday at 5 p.m. ?
• Present Perfect: Have you ever listened to Hawaiian music?

Special Question. Special question (Wh question)

Let's listen - Sol fa do re mi

• What do you listen to every day?
• When did you listen to that music?
• Where will you listen to music?
• Why are you listening to music?
• How were you listening to music?
• How many symphonies have you already listened to?

Alternative question

This is a type of question that asks for an alternative, a choice.

For example, " Do you like classical or popular music? ”

Listen to one of the most common variations of this type of verb - Fa do re mi la mi

• Do you like classical or popular music?

Tag question

This is a question with a “tail”, when we say some phrase containing information that we are almost sure of and ask the interlocutor for confirmation “isn’t it? is not it?"

You love classical music, don't you?

This is the only type of question whose main part has direct word order.

The “tail” contains an auxiliary verb and a subject, but if the main part of the sentence is positive, the tail must be negative, and vice versa, if the main part is negative, the tail will be positive.

Do re mi fa do

You like classical music, don’t you?
You are listening to Mozart music now, aren’t you?
You haven’t heard it before, have you?

Subject question

This melody does not like auxiliary verbs (do, does, did). And of course there is no note here BEFORE, because it is about this note (about the subject) that we ask through the note SI(Who or What did the action). Here's a note SI and becomes the subject.

Si re mi

Who likes classical music?
What inspired him to compose that Symphony?

Please note, since the note F(purple, indicating the auxiliary verbs do, does, did) is missing in this melody, verb (blue note re) is placed immediately in the required form in accordance with the grammatical tense, as in an affirmative sentence.

Who called? Past tense. Who called? The ending -ed was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Past Simple.

Who calls you every day? Who calls you every day? The ending -s was added to the verb, as in the affirmative sentence in the Present Simple in the 3rd person singular (as with the pronouns he, she or it).

Now make 10 affirmative sentences in different tenses and ask all types of questions to each!

This way, the melodies will be firmly fixed in your memory, and you will not be out of tune.

We have made a short video lesson for you on this topic to better reinforce the material.

Enjoy watching.

Write in the comments if you liked the video?

Happy English to you!

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

There are five types of questions in English. Let's take a closer look at each of them together. Each of the five types of interrogative sentences has its own word order, which you need to remember in order to learn how to ask questions correctly.

1. Question to the subject

In a sentence of this type, we maintain direct word order, leaving all members of the sentence in their places. You just need to find the subject in the sentence and replace it with a suitable question word, i.e. a question to which the subject answers: either Who? -who?, or What? -What? A question to the subject does not require the use of an auxiliary verb in the present and past tense. You just need to remember that the verb-predicate in the present tense takes the third person singular form.

Google shortcode

What forced you to do this? – What forced you to do this?
What made you worry? -What made you worry?
Who works in this office? – Who works in this office?
Who traveled to the south? – Who traveled south?
Who likes swimming? – who likes to swim?

2. General question

In this case, the question is asked to the entire sentence, there is no question word in this case, and the answer is always unambiguous: either “yes” or “no”. Questions of this type are also known in English as “yes / no question”. To translate such a sentence from Russian into English, you need to remember the following word order: Auxiliary verb (depending on the number of the subject and what grammatical tense the sentence belongs to) – subject – predicate – minor members.

Do you often go shopping? – Yes, I do – Do you go shopping often? - Yes
Does she like studying? - No, she doesn’t - Does she like studying? - No
Is this film interesting? – yes, it is – is this film interesting? - Yes
Are you hungry? - no, I am not - are you hungry? - No

Notice how easy it is to pose a general question to English declarative sentences. You just need to find the subject, choose the appropriate auxiliary verb for it and put it at the beginning of the sentence.

We live in a comfortable flat – Do we live in a comfortable flat?
He studies at a college – Does he study at a college?
They usually come here - Do they usually come here?
This student is very prospective – is this student very prospective?
My favorite colors are red and white – are my favorite colors red and white?

3. Alternative question

This question can be asked to each member of the sentence and you need to follow the same word order as when asking a general question, but with one feature - the sentence implies a choice between two persons, objects, actions or qualities and requires the use of the conjunction “or”. Let's pose an alternative question to the following sentence: We finished cooking dinner at 2 o’clock - we finished cooking dinner at 2 o’clock.

Did we finish cooking dinner at 2 or 3 o’clock? – did we finish cooking dinner at 2 or 3 o’clock?
Did we finish cooking or eating dinner 2 o’clock? – Have we finished cooking or is there lunch at 2 o’clock?

4. Special question

A special question is asked to any member English sentences and requires the use of a question word, and the word order is also reversed: in the first place (When? What? Where?, etc.) - an auxiliary verb (depending on the number of the subject and what grammatical tense the sentence belongs to) - the subject – predicate – minor members.

When does your lesson begin? – When does your lesson start?
What are you doing here? - What are you doing here?
When did you buy this vase? – When did you buy this vase?

5. Dividing question

The presence of such a question in the English language allows you to unobtrusively ask about things of interest, and in addition express either doubt, surprise, or confirm what was said. A similar phrase is translated into Russian as “isn’t it? , is not it?". A similar question is divided into two parts: the first part is the sentence itself without changing the word order, the second part is a question consisting only of an auxiliary verb related to the grammatical tense of the sentence and a subject. If the sentence is affirmative, then the second part - the question - will be negative, and if the sentence is negative, then, on the contrary, the question will not contain a negation.

Your sister is a student, isn’t she? – your sister is a student, isn’t she?
You are not busy, are you? – you are not busy, are you?
He goes to bed very late, does not he? — he goes to bed very late, right?
She doesn’t eat meat, does she? – She doesn’t eat meat, does she?

Knowing the rules, you can easily correctly compose any interrogative sentence.