5 Types of
Questions in English
1.
General or Yes/No Questions
Common
questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” are logically called
yes/no questions. The question forms
with the help of the auxiliary verb at the beginning.
If the question
begins with a form of the verb “to be” – am, is, are – then answer “Yes, I
am/he is/they are,” or “No, I am not/he isn’t/they aren’t.”
It is
similar to auxiliary verbs (do/does, did, will, have/has):
For example:
Did she clean the room? – Yes, she did/No,
she didn’t.
Have you done your homework? – Yes, I
have/ No, I haven’t.
Will you buy that dress? – Yes, I will/
No, I won’t.
2.
Special or Wh-Questions
A special
question, uses a question word at the beginning of the sentence to ask a
specific question, then the auxiliary verb is used. The questions words: what, where, when, why, how, how many, etc.,
are used to begin the question:
For
example:
Where is he from? –
When did you come here? –
How did you meet her? –
How many eggs do we need for this cake?
–
Whose children are playing in the yard?
–
3.
Question to the subject
Note that
questions to a subject (who? What?) have their own special structure; they do
not require an auxiliary verb, we replace the subject with the question
word.
For
example:
We go to the cinema. – Who goes to the
cinema?
The glass is on the table. – What is on
the table?
Most girls here wear skirts. – Who
wears skirts here?
You can
see that after the question words who and what, the third-person singular form
of the verb should be used.
4.
Choice Questions
Choice
questions are questions that offer a choice of several options as an answer. They
are made up of two parts, which are connected by the conjunction or.
Choice
questions can be either general or more specific ones.
For
example:
Does she like ice cream or sweets? – She
likes ice cream.
Where would you go, to the cinema or
the theatre? – I would go to
the cinema.
Is he a teacher or a student? – He is a
student.
5.
Disjunctive or Tag Questions
This type of
question is also made up of two parts, where the first part is a positive
statement, and the second part is negative, or vice-versa.
The first
part of the sentence defines the expected answer. If the statement is positive,
a positive answer is expected; if the statement is negative, a negative answer
is expected.
For
example:
She sent him an invitation, didn’t she? –
Yes, she did.
You aren’t getting married, are you? –
No, I am not.
Jane isn’t in France, is she? – No, she
isn’t.
Our dad will come soon, won’t he? –
Yes, he will.
There are
also exceptions:
I am going
with you, aren’t I? – Yes, you are.
You can’t
say, “I am a great person, am I not?”
That would
be incorrect. Just remember that when the pronoun “I” is used, the tag is
are/aren’t.
Tag
questions are only used in conversational speech to clarify information or to
confirm or refute something if there are doubts.
