How to ask questions in english

How to Ask Questions in English

Getty Images/Donald Iain Smith

There are many ways to ask questions in English. It’s important to understand the situation when deciding how to ask questions. In other words, is the question you want to ask a polite request? Would you like to confirm the information you already know? Are you gathering details about a subject?

How to Ask Direct Questions

Direct questions are the most common type of question in English. Direct questions are asked when asking for both simple and complex information. To begin with, here is a guide to the structure of direct questions:

Examples:

How to Ask Yes/No Questions

Yes/No questions refer to simple questions you ask to receive either a yes or no as a response. Yes/No questions do not use question words and always begin with the auxiliary verb.

Examples:

How to Ask Subject and Object Questions

Look at the following example sentence and questions:

Jason likes playing golf.

What does Jason like playing? (Answer: golf)
Who likes playing golf? (Answer: Jason)

In the first question, we are asking about the object. When asking about the object, use direct question construction beginning with a question word followed by the auxiliary verb.

Wh? + auxiliary + subject + verb?

Who does he follow online?

In the second question, we are asking for the subject of the action. When asking subject questions, do not use the auxiliary verb. The ‘Wh’ question word plays the role of the subject in the question.

Wh? + (auxiliary) + verb + object?

Who understands this problem?

Note: Remember that the present simple or past simple do not take the auxiliary in positive sentence structure.

Examples:

Common question forms for subject questions:

Which

Which bicycle goes fast?

What kind of

What kind of cheese tastes mild?

What sort of

What sort of tea costs very little?

Who

Who goes to school here?

How to Use Question Tags to Ask Questions

Another type of common question in English is the question tag. Many languages such as Spanish also use question tags. Use them to confirm information that you already know, or think you know. This form is used in conversation and when checking that you have understood something.

Construct a question tag by making a statement followed by a comma and the opposite (positive > negative, negative > positive) form of the appropriate auxiliary verb.

Examples:

Indirect Questions

When we want to be more polite we often use indirect question forms. They ask the same as direct questions but are considered more formal. When using an indirect question, use an introductory phrase followed by the question itself in positive sentence structure. Connect the two phrases with the question word or ‘if’ in the case the question is a yes/no question.

Construction Chart

Introductory phrase + question word (or if) + positive sentence

Examples:

Here are some of the most common phrases used for asking indirect questions.

Do you know.
I wonder/was wondering.
Can you tell me.
I’m not sure.
I don’t know.

Типы вопросов в английском языке

8 класс, 9 класс, 10 класс, 11 класс, ЕГЭ/ОГЭ

5 типов вопросов / 5 types of questions

Всего в английском языке пять видов вопросов — каждый из них мы используем в повседневной жизни:

1.Общий вопрос (general question or yes/no question). Мы его используем, если хотим узнать общую, основную информацию:

2.Специальный вопрос (special question, or a wh‒question). Этот вопрос мы задаем, когда нам нужно узнать определенную, конкретную информацию:

3.Вопрос к подлежащему (who/what question). Задаем такой вопрос, когда хотим узнать кто выполняет действие:

4.Альтернативный вопрос (alternative question). Этот вопрос используется, когда вы предлагаете собеседнику выбрать из двух альтернативных вариантов:

5.Разделительный вопрос (tag question). Задавая этот вопрос, вы хотите подтвердить или опровергнуть какую‒то информацию:

Теперь, когда мы познакомились с наиболее важными видами вопросов в английском языке, давайте разберем каждый из них поподробнее.

Общие вопросы

Если вам не важны детали, нет времени на длинный разговор и вы просто хотите получить ответ «да» либо «нет» — смело задавайте общий вопрос. Схема его построения будет следующей:

Сначала немного теории.

Вспомогательный глагол — это непереводимые на русский язык слова, которые указывают на время, когда совершается действие, и лицо. Всего этих глаголов три: be, do, have.

Модальный глагол — это неизменяемая часть речи, которая выражает необходимость, возможность, намерение или способность что-то сделать. Вот эти глаголы: can, could, may, might, will, shall, would, should, must, dare, need, ought to, used to, have (got) to, be going to and be able to.

А теперь давайте образуем общие вопросительные предложения согласно схеме выше.

Заметьте, что общие вопросы являются «перевертышами» утвердительных предложений. В них вспомогательный и модальный глаголы стоят после подлежащего, а в вопросе — перед подлежащим..

Запомнить

Модальный глагол have to идет в связке с вспомогательным глаголом:

При употреблении глагола to be вспомогательный глагол не используется:

Специальные вопросы

Очень часто построение вопросов в английском языке включает WH-questions — специальные вопросительные слова:

Эти вопросительные слова ставятся на первое место в специальных вопросах, а уже за ними следует остальная часть, которая строится по схеме общего вопроса:

What (вопросительное слово) did (вспомогательный глагол) you (подлежащее) do (сказуемое) yesterday? ‒ Что ты делал вчера?

Where (вопросительное слово) have (вспомогательный глагол) you (подлежащее) been (сказуемое)? ‒ Где ты был?

Who (вопросительное слово) has (вспомогательный глагол) travelled (сказуемое) to India? ‒ Кто путешествовал в Индию?

When (вопросительное слово) will (вспомогательный глагол) you (подлежащее) go (сказуемое) to a doctor? ‒ Когда ты пойдешь к доктору?

Why (вопросительное слово) should (вспомогательный глагол) I (подлежащее) do (сказуемое) my homework everyday? ‒ Почему я должен делать уроки каждый день?

How (вопросительное слово) can (вспомогательный глагол) I (подлежащее) learn (сказуемое) more about this opportunity? ‒ Как мне можно узнать больше об этой возможности?

Запомнить

Если смысловой глагол в предложении ‒ это to be, то в вопросе подлежащее и сказуемое меняются местами и вспомогательный глагол не нужен:

Если в предложении есть модальный глагол, то вспомогательный глагол не нужен и вопрос строится перестановкой мест подлежащего и сказуемого:

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Вопросы к подлежащему

Подлежащее является одним из основных членов предложения и отвечает на вопрос Кто? Что? В отличие от специальных вопросов, в данном случае нам не нужны вспомогательные глаголы для построения предложения. Замените подлежащее на who или what и добавьте вопросительную интонацию.

Вот схема таких вопросов:

Давайте еще разок посмотрим на структуру таких предложений. Например, у нас есть утвердительное предложение:

Мы не расслышали нашего собеседника и хотим его переспросить, Кто поет песню?

Чтобы задать этот вопрос по-английски, замените подлежащее somebody на who и сохраните все остальные слова в их утвердительной форме:

Здесь есть один очень важный момент. Несмотря на лицо и число подлежащего в утвердительном предложении, вопрос к подлежащему всегда будет задаваться как будто бы мы говорим о существительном второго лица единственного числа (he, she, it).

То есть задавая подобный вопрос, всегда представляйте, что на месте who/what стоит местоимение he/she/it и в настоящем времени не забудьте к глаголу подставить окончание -s.

Альтернативные вопросы

Следуя из названия, такие вопросы предлагают собеседнику выбрать один из двух предложенных варианта, которые присоединяются союзом «или» ‒ or. Это может быть выбор предметов, мест, действий, качеств и так далее.

Сам вопрос строится как обычный общий вопрос, только в конце мы предлагаем собеседнику альтернативу: этот вариант или этот? Схема будет следующей:

Разделительные вопросы

Когда мы хотим уточнить что‒то, что мы уже знаем, показать свое недоверие и удивление, нам понадобится навык построения разделительных вопросов (tag questions). Называются они так потому, что перед уточнением стоит запятая, которая разделяет две части вопроса: утверждение/отрицание и хвостик ‒ tag.

Такие вопросы еще называют вопросы с хвостиком, и у них весьма интересная модель построения.

Как составить вопрос на английском

Если в первой части предложения есть утверждение, то во второй будет отрицание:

Если в первой части предложения стоит отрицание, то во второй части будет утверждение:

Разделительные вопросы очень часто используются в повседневной англоязычной речи:

они отлично работают, когда вам необходимо побудить собеседника к ответу.

Они помогают выразить целое море эмоций и помогают вежливо что‒то уточнить:

Их очень легко выучить и понять, так как в tag questions используется прямой порядок слов. Не забудьте добавить хвостик в конце и ваш вопрос готов.

Сам «хвостик» можно переводить с англ на русский язык несколькими способами: «не так ли», «правильно», «не правда ли», и «да»

Что в итоге

Всего в английском языке существует пять основных видов вопросов. Мы надеемся, что после прочтения нашей статьи, вы стали лучше разбираться в этой теме и можете с легкостью не только ответить на следующие вопросы, но и перевести их на английский язык:

Составление вопросов в английском для многих становится сложной задачей: чтобы выучить правила и отработать знания на практике, уходит много времени и сил. Но как и в любом деле, чем больше вы будете практиковаться — тем лучше. Задавайте вопросы в уме, когда идете на работу, готовите ужин или гуляете с собакой. Давайте еще разок повторим все типы вопросов в английском языке.

How to ask questions in English

If you are learning the language, one of the important topics you will need to know is how to ask questions in English. This post reviews the structure and gives examples of each type of question in songs. Unlike in other languages, when we ask questions in English we have to change the structure of the sentence, and this can be confusing. In this series of blog posts we are going to break down the topic into four types of question you should know how to ask in English.

Yes/No questions

Probably the simplest type of question in English, the answer to this type of question is a yes or a no.

How to form YES/NO questions in English

We always use an auxiliary verb such as “do”, “be”, “have” or another modal verb, and we need to arrange the component parts of the question in the following manner:

For more information and examples in the various tenses see our post “How to ask yes/no questions in English ”

Songs with YES/NO questions in English

Wh- questions

Wh- questions ask for more information than just a yes or no answer. They are more open, needing a longer response in general.

How to form WH- questions in English

It’s very simple to learn how to form “wh-” questions in English if you understand the structure of YES/NO questions

The structure of a “wh- question” is usually like this:

We usually just need to add a question word or phrase to the beginning of the yes/no question structure. For more information and examples in different tenses take a look at our article “How to ask open questions in English”

Question words used to ask questions in English

With the exception of “how” most question words are written with “wh-”. Here’s a quick recap of the question words and phrases including when to use them.

True “Wh-” question words

What: asks for information about a thing or an object.

Which: is similar to “what” but we use it when there is a range or some options to choose from.

When: is used to ask for times or dates.

Where: asks for information about a location or a place.

Who: we use “who” if we require information about a person or people.

Why: indicates we want a reason or an explanation.

“How” question words:

How: leads to answers containing information the way or technique to do something.

How much: is used to ask about quantities of uncountable nouns such as sugar, water, money, etc.

How many: asks for quantities of things are countable such as people, bottles of water, euros, etc.

How often: indicates that we want a response about the frequency of an event.

How + adjective: additionally we can use “how” with a descriptive word (an adjective) to ask about the degree or amount of that adjective. For example: “how tall,” “how flexible,” “how efficient,” “how old” and many others.

Question phrases

Sometimes, for more precision, we can use phrases with multiple words as a question word. For example, I can as “Where” but if I want more precise information I can ask “Where in Europe…” for example. There are an almost infinite amount of combinations of question phrases, such as “How many times this year,” “When in summer,” etc.

So although the question word may have more than one word, it will still go at the start of the sentence.

Songs with Wh- questions in English

Questions with tags

Question tags are used to check that information we believe to be correct is actually correct. For example: You don’t speak French, do you?

The tag, in this case “do you?”, comes after the main clause and turns it into a question.

How to form a question with tags.

As with other types of questions we depend on an auxiliary verb to form the question tag.

[main clause] + [auxiliary] + [subject pronoun]

If the main clause is affirmative we need a negative (normally contracted) tag. If the main clause if negative, the question tag is affirmative:

Affirmative main clause: You support Man U, don’t you?

Negative main clause: You don’t think he’s cute, do you?

Songs with questions tags in English

By far the best song with examples of question tags is A little time by the Beautiful South

The Beautiful South – A Little Time

Here are some of the lyrics:

“Funny how quick the milk turns sour

Isn’t it, isn’t it

Your face has been looking like that for hours

And the song continues:

“You need a little room for your big head

Don’t you, don’t you

You need a little space for a thousand beds

Take a look at all the post in this blog series on how to ask questions in English. Don’t forget that if you would like some professional help from our outstanding English teachers and our fantastic unique method, you can sign up for a free trial on our website.

Asking Questions in English: 3 Types of Questions You Should Know

Asking questions is a useful skill for almost any situation, and questioning everything will help you learn a lot more.

In this guide, we’ll cover three main types of questions in English that you can use again and again in real life.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Is a Question?

This question may seem obvious (clear), but it’s good to review. There are generally three types of sentences: statements, commands and questions.

Statements are sentences that state (tell) information:

Commands are sentences that give orders (tell people to do actions). This is also sometimes called the “imperative.”

Questions are sentences that ask for information. Today we’ll look at three types of questions: (1) “yes/no” questions, (2) “wh-” questions and (3) “tag” questions. For each type, we’ll see many example questions in different tenses.

English Grammar Words to Know for Asking Questions

I’ll try to keep this post as simple as possible for anyone just starting to learn English for beginners, but there are a few words you should know to help you better understand this post. If you already know these words, you can skip ahead to the next section!

Verbs

A verb is an action word. It’s usually the most important part of any sentence because it tells you what is happening. For this post, you should know two types of verbs: main verbs and auxiliary verbs.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, thing or idea. Depending on how you use nouns, they can also have different names:

Tenses

When talking about grammar, “tense” indicates when actions happen. There are three basic tenses: past, present and future. Each of those tenses can be simple, perfect or continuous (also called “progressive”).

That should be enough basic vocabulary to help you understand this article, so let’s start by looking at our first type of question.

3 Types of Questions You Should Know How to Ask in English

1. “Yes/No” Questions

This type of question is usually the easiest to ask and answer in English. They’re called “yes/no questions” because the answer to these questions is generally “yes” or “no.”

How to form yes/no questions

The basic structure for yes/no questions looks like this:

Examples of yes/no questions

Present simple examples

The present simple tense is used to talk about things that are always true, or things that generally or frequently happen. Here are some question examples:

Careful: Exception! If the main verb of the sentence is some form of “to be,” it goes in the auxiliary position. Here are a few examples:

There is no second verb in the four examples above, so you go directly to the “other information.”

Present continuous examples

This is also called “present progressive.” When you use this tense, you want to indicate that something is happening right now, so use some form of the verb “to be” and a verb that ends with “-ing.”

Present perfect examples

The present perfect tense is used to talk about things that started in the past, but are still true or relevant now. For example:

Present perfect continuous examples

Perfect tenses can also be made continuous. You can do that if you want to talk about something that started in the past, but you want to emphasize that it’s still actively happening now. For example:

Past simple examples

Use the past simple tense when you want to talk about actions that were completed in the past. To do that, put the auxiliary in the past form (usually “did”).

Careful: Exception! This is similar to the exception for the simple present. If the main verb of the sentence is some form of “to be,” then put the simple past form of “to be” in the auxiliary position. Again, a second verb isn’t necessary. For example:

Past continuous examples

Use the past continuous when you want to talk about completed past actions that continued for a period of time. To do this, use a past form of the verb “to be” for the auxiliary and the “-ing” form for the main verb.

Past perfect examples

This tense is less common, but it’s still useful. It uses the auxiliary “had” plus the past participle of the verb. You can use the past perfect to show one event happened before another in the past. The earlier events use the past perfect and the more recent events use the past simple. For example:

Past perfect continuous examples

This is similar to the past perfect tense, but it indicates that the first action continued for a period of time. It uses the auxiliary “had,” and the main verb = “been” + the “-ing” verb.

This is even less common than the regular past perfect tense, but you can still see how it uses the same structure for yes/no questions:

Future simple examples

The most common type of future yes/no questions are ones that use the future simple tense.

You can use the future simple tense to ask about short actions in the future. These questions are actually very easy to make. Start the sentence with “will” as the auxiliary and use a simple (infinitive) verb for the main verb.

Future continuous examples

You can use this to talk about things that will happen for a period of time in the future. Start with “will” as the auxiliary verb and use “be” plus the “-ing” form of a verb.

Future perfect examples

These final two tenses are much less common. They’re also more complicated because you generally have to include more context information when you use them.

Future perfect continuous examples

Famous songs and books with yes/no questions

There are several songs and books that use yes/no questions in their titles. Here are a few of my favorites.

Songs

Books

2. “Wh-” Questions

These are called “wh-” questions because they usually start with a question word that begins with the letters “wh.” Sometimes they’re also called “open questions.” That’s because there are many more possible answers than just yes/no.

Question words for “wh-” questions

Most question words actually do start with “wh-,” with the exception of “how.” Here’s a quick review of the question words you should know and when to use them.

Some “wh-” question words start with “how”:

Important note about question phrases:

Some question “words” are actually phrases with multiple words. For example, I can start a question with “Where,” but I can also add a phrase, such as “Where in Germany.” There are many, many possibilities here, such as “How many times this month,” “When in March,” etc.

So you can have a question phrase with more than one word. But it will normally still go in the same position at the start of the sentence.

How to form “wh-” questions

If you understand how to form yes/no questions, then it’s very easy to form “wh-” questions. Generally, just add a question word/phrase to the beginning of a yes/no question.

The structure of a “wh- question” is usually like this:

Examples of “wh-” questions

We’ll look at these examples in the same order as in the first section, with some similar topics. I won’t include explanations about when and how to use each of the tenses unless there are differences between yes/no questions and “wh-” questions.

Present simple examples

Careful: Exception! For some questions that start with “Who,” we don’t always know who the subject is. Because of that, we normally change the structure a bit. For example:

Object Question: Who does your mom love?

Here “your mom” is the subject. So after “who,” I include the auxiliary, then the subject, and then the verb. The question is asking about the object (the person your mom loves), so it’s called an object question.

Subject Question: Who loves your mom?

In this case, “who” is asking about the identity of the subject. “Your mom” is actually the object of this sentence. So I can eliminate the auxiliary and the subject. That may be a little confusing, since “your mom” is a person, but let’s see an example with a thing:

Who loves pizza?

Here it’s much clearer that there is no subject in the question, and that “pizza” is the object.

Present continuous examples

Present perfect examples

This tense is more common with yes/no questions, but there are some times when you can make this tense into “wh-” questions.

Present perfect continuous examples

Past simple examples

Careful: Exception! If the main verb of the sentence is some form of “to be,” then a second verb usually isn’t necessary. For example:

Past continuous examples

Past perfect examples

Past perfect continuous examples

Future simple examples

Future continuous examples

Future perfect examples

Remember that these final two tenses are much less common. If you use them, include more context information.

Future perfect continuous examples

A Note About Negative Questions

Normally, we don’t make yes/no questions into negative questions because it makes them too confusing. But it’s no problem to make “wh-” questions negative.

To make a negative question, you just have to add “not” to the sentence. There are two basic possibilities:

1. As a contraction with the auxiliary.

This is much more common, especially in spoken English. It’s also used often with the question word “why.” For example:

2. As “not,” after the subject.

This sounds a little more formal, but you can definitely use it if you’re not comfortable with contractions. For example:

Famous songs and books with “wh-” questions

There are also many songs and books that have “wh-” questions in their titles. Here are some good ones.

Songs

Books

Want to learn with more videos like these? You can watch native English videos like the ones above with interactive subtitles on FluentU.

Search for the wh- word you want to practice on FluentU (or any other word) and you’ll see all the videos where the word appears. Then, you just have to pick the one that interests you the most, among movie trailers, music videos, funny commercials, news clips and more.

FluentU’s videos have interactive subtitles, so you can look up translations while you watch. This way, you can better remember any questions and phrases you heard in the videos because you saw them used in context.

You can also save words as flashcards, so you can make question word flashcard decks then practice them with personalized quizzes. FluentU can be used in your browser or you can take it with you wherever you go on the iOS or Android apps.

3. Tag Questions

This is the final type of question we’ll look at today. Normally you use tag questions to confirm information that you think is correct. They come at the end of a statement.

These can be a bit difficult for many English learners, but native English speakers use them all the time.

When should I use tag questions?

If I want to know basic information, I can ask a yes/no question:

Do you speak Chinese?

I can also ask “wh-” questions for more information:

How often do you speak Chinese?

But if I think something is true, but I’m not 100% certain, I can ask a tag question:

You speak Chinese, don’t you?

Notice that the structure is very different from the other two types of questions.

How do I form tag questions?

This can get complicated, but basically there are two parts: (1) the statement and (2) the tag.

If the statement is positive, the tag is negative:

You’ve seen the new “Star Wars” movie, haven’t you?

And if the statement is negative, the tag is positive.

You haven’t seen the new “Star Wars” movie yet, have you?

The statements and tags should be in the same tense. Both of these examples are in the present perfect.

You also need to decide what tag to use. If you have a statement that uses an auxiliary (usually forms of “do,” “have,” “be” and modal verbs like “can,” “might,” “will,” etc.), then use the opposite auxiliary in the tag.

Here are a few examples:

That building was built last year, wasn’t it?

The car wasn’t in the garage, was it?

You will go to the party, won’t you?

It has taken a long time to plan the party, hasn’t it?

It’s hot today, isn’t it?

If there is no auxiliary in the statement, you should use the form of the verb “to do” that matches the tense in the statement in the tag. For example:

You like pizza, don’t you?

His uncle works in the airport, doesn’t he?

You went to Bermuda last year, didn’t you?

We haven’t studied tag questions yet, have we?

Again, remember that tag questions use question marks (“?”), but they’re not actually asking questions. They’re just trying to get confirmation or make conversation.

So, did you understand all of that? Are you going to practice asking some questions right now? You can do it, can’t you?

Thanks for reading, and happy questioning!

Ryan Sitzman teaches English and sometimes German in Costa Rica. He is passionate about learning, coffee, traveling, languages, writing, photography, books and movies, but not necessarily in that order. You can learn more or connect with him through his website Sitzman ABC.

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How to Ask Questions in English

You need to be able to answer and ask questions in English in order to have productive and coherent conversations in English-speaking countries. This means that asking questions is one of the most important elements of English conversation.

Click below to listen to a recording of this passage.

However, most English learners often learn how to answer questions first. Consequently, the correct question grammar may feel more complicated than statement grammar.

The reality is that you should not feel intimidated by English questions. There are rules that you will need to learn, but we will do our best to lay them out as simply and clearly as possible! So, let’s take a look at how to ask questions in English.

Prefer to watch this lesson on video? Here’s our full-length tutorial on how to ask questions in English:

How to Ask Questions in English

3 Important Types of Questions in English

There are a variety of question formats in the English language. That said, there are 3 important types that you will need to know in order to have natural English conversations: Yes/No Questions, Wh- Questions, and Tag Questions. These three categories will ensure that you can ask questions in a wide range of settings.

Yes/No Questions

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Yes/No Questions are among the easiest English questions to answer. For each of these questions, the answer will usually be either “yes” or “no.” In many cases, you can also answer a Yes/No Question with “I don’t know,” “maybe,” “possibly,” etc. Nonetheless, Yes/No Questions are always formatted so that the answer should be either “yes” or “no.”

Yes/No Questions are generally formatted like this:

Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject + Main Verb + Object or Additional Information?

However, Yes/No Questions can change when the main verb is some form of “to be.” For these questions, the format looks more like this:

To Be + Subject + Adjective?

Yes/No Questions in the negative are not as common, as they sound a little clunkier and can be answered in the same way. When put in the negative form, Yes/No Questions usually have a tone of skepticism or an assumption that the answer is already known. Here are a few examples:

Wh- Questions

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Wh- Questions are not quite as simple as Yes/No Questions, as they involve much more contextual variety. Most Wh- Questions could be answered in more than just two or three ways. However, every Wh- Question begins with one of the following words:

As you can see, all but one of these words begins with “Wh” (hence the name of the category). Now, let’s take a look at how you will usually format these questions:

Wh- Word + Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject + Main Verb + Object or Additional Information?

For questions in which “what,” “who,” “which,” or “whose” is the subject, we do not separate the verb into two parts:

Negative Wh- Questions

While Yes/No Questions are not as common in the negative form, negative wh- questions are very useful in conversations. Thankfully, you won’t need to change the format very much:

Wh- Word + Negative Contraction of Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject + Main Verb + Object or Additional Information?

Tag Questions

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Finally, we have Tag Questions. These are questions that are usually added to the end of a statement to confirm the validity of the information. For example, if you are pretty certain that something is true, but you would like to confirm the information with someone else, you would ask a Tag Question. Here’s how Tag Questions are formatted:

Positive Statement + Negative Contraction of Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject Pronoun?

As you can see, when the statement is positive, the tag is negative. However, if the statement is negative, the format changes accordingly:

Negative Statement + Positive Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject Pronoun?

When you have a statement without an auxiliary verb, you can simply use “to do” to form the Tag Question. In any case, the tense of the Tag Question should always match the tense of the statement. Here are a few examples:

How to Ask Questions in English Politely

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Asking direct questions might not always sound polite, especially if you’re speaking to a stranger. This is why English speakers often turn Yes/No Questions and Wh- Questions into Indirect Questions (Tag Questions cannot be changed to Indirect Questions). These types of questions usually start with one of the following phrases:

Indirect Yes/No Questions

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Indirect Yes/No Questions use the word “if” in combination with a positive statement. Let’s look at a few examples:

Even though the Indirect Question is formatted like a statement, we still use a question mark to signify that a question is being asked.

Indirect Wh- Questions

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Indirect Wh- Questions work similarly, as they are phrases used in conjunction with a positive statement. However, Indirect Wh- Questions do not require the word “if.” Additionally, we must switch the order of the subject and verb in the Indirect Question. Here are a few examples:

We hope you found this guide on English questions helpful! If you’d like to learn more about how to ask questions in English, visit Magoosh Speaking today!