Formation of questions using
question words:
Question
word + auxiliary verb + subject + bare infinitive (without to)
Examples:
What do you eat for breakfast?
Where do they live?
Why do we need to go to school?
Why does he play football?
The auxiliary "do / does"
changes to "did" when asking a question in the
past.
Where did you live?
We do not use the auxiliary "do
/ does / did" in questions if "who / what / which"
is the subject of the sentence.
|
Who
- object
|
|
Who
- subject
|
|
-
|
|
-
|
|
Amanda spoke
to somebody
|
|
Somebody
spoke to Amanda
|
|
Who did
Amanda speak to?
|
|
Who spoke
to Amanda?
|
We use "who" when we
are referring to people. We use "what"
or which when we are referring to things or places.
More examples with "who / what
/ which" as the subject:
Who wants to play tennis? (Not
- who does want)
Which computer is the best? (Not
- which computer does be)
Questions without question words:
We usually make a question by changing
the word order in a sentence. We put the first auxiliary verb
before the subject:
Sentence:
We will go swimming tomorrow
Question:
Will we go swimming tomorrow?
Sentence:
I have been working hard
Question:
Have you been working hard?
When answering a question you usually use the bare infinitive:
Where do you live? I live in London
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Yes, I have one brother
However, when the question does not require any specific information
and a simple yes or no answer, we use the auxiliary verb as the
answer.
Does he enjoy his job? Yes, he does
Do you play the trumpet? Yes, I do
