How to Ask Questions in English

Hello Friends...

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn... 

Let's learn to think first...

Simple/Closed Questions

Sometimes you come across questions where you have to answer either in affirmative or in negative. That is to say, you either mean 'yes' [affirmative], or 'no' [negative] as you answer those questions.

1. Am I clear?

2. Was your answer a 'yes' or a 'no'?

You must have chosen either to mean 'yes' or 'no' as you answered the above two questions.

3. Did you get the chance to mean something else instead of a 'yes' or a 'no' here while answering the previous questions?

Of course, your answer to this question is a 'no'.

Such questions which are to be answered either with an affirmative or a negative are called simple questions or closed questions.

Open/Information Questions

4. Why do you think we need to study these?

5. How is this study going to help us to use the language in our real life?

6. What are the benefits of this study?

Well, I am pretty sure that you didn't get the scope to reply with just an affirmative or a negative to answer the questions from 4-6.

Such questions are called open questions or information questions. We are expected to provide some information/opinion while answering such questions. Just an affirmation or a negation won't do here.

Patterns to Study

Well, you have already been provided with six questions to study. 

7. Have you noticed anything specific to any group in particular?

8. What have you noticed?

9. Don't you find that all the closed questions begin with an auxiliary/helping verb (‘do’, 'be', 'have' and the ‘modal’ verbs)?

10. How do the open questions begin?

11. Did you miss the fact that the open questions begin with a wh-word like ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘which’, ‘who’, ‘whose’, ‘whom’ and ‘how’?

Identifying the Types of Questions

It seems that you have already found a way to identify closed questions and open questions. But in our real life, it is not actually essential for us to identify questions as open ones or closed ones. Rather it would be beneficial for us only if we are able to use this particular study to ask questions appropriately. And that's the only objective of this particular discussion,- to enable ourselves to ask questions appropriately.

Syntax

I am expecting that you still remember the basic syntactic structure of a sentence in English:

Subject + verb phrase + object/complement + remaining part/adjunct

Now, when we ask closed questions we move the auxiliary verb from the verb phrase to the beginning of the sentence. 

12. Haven't we done the same here while asking all those closed questions including this one?

Yes, of course we have done so. That is to say, we may formulate the syntactic structure of closed questions as:

Auxiliary/helping verb + subject + rest of the verb phrase + object/complement + remaining part/adjunct?

And since the null marker (not) moves along with the auxiliary verb at the beginning in case of negative interrogatives (as in question 9 and question 12), we should revise the structure of closed questions as:

Auxiliary/helping verb [not] + subject + rest of the verb phrase + object/complement + remaining part/adjunct?

Now comes the obvious question...

13. How do we choose the auxiliary verbs? 

Subject-verb Agreement

The Auxiliary Verbs

Well, auxiliary verbs mostly mark the tense and agree with the subject in person and number.

We use 'do' auxiliary verbs in simple/indefinite aspect, 'be' auxiliary verbs in continuous/progressive aspect and 'have' auxiliary verbs in perfect/perfect continuous aspect. Apart from these three most common auxiliary verbs, we also have the modal auxiliaries like can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would. 

The Problem with Modals

Questions with modals may seem to be a bit tricky at first. I would suggest you to come back to this portion once again after you have finished the rest of the discussion:

14. May I interrupt you for once? 

When we have only one modal auxiliary, it’s simple. But the form of the modal doesn’t always indicate tense:

15. Would you point out your doubts? [It is actually a polite way of making a request. (Why don’t you try to pick some more examples like this?) The past form of the modal auxiliary doesn’t indicate past tense here, rather it is used to refer to the future- I am requesting you to point out your doubts (only after I make the request at present).]

16. Shouldn't you voice your doubts? [Again, the past form of the modal auxiliary isn’t indicating past tense, but is referring to what you ought to do.]

17. Should I have given you more examples? [I have left the job for you on purpose…]

Multiple Auxiliary Verbs in the Verb Phrase

When you have multiple auxiliary verbs with a modal, you move the modal to the beginning of the question and leave the other one[s] with the rest of the verb phrase as in question 17. And, if you have multiple auxiliary verbs without a modal, then you move the ‘have’ verb to the beginning of your question:

18. Have I been confusing you thoroughly?

19. Why do you worry? Just take a break, go through the earlier discussion and come back once again when you are refreshed and see if that helps...

20. What do we do as we ask open questions? 

We begin with wh-words that's for sure… 

21. Do we follow the same syntax meant for interrogatives then? 

'Who'- The Interrogative Pronoun Functioning As the 'Subject' to the Verb Phrase

22. Who agrees?

23. Where is the auxiliary verb in question 22? [Here in question 23 we have the auxiliary verb ‘is’ (‘be’) following the wh-word ‘where’ though...]

24. Doesn't question 22 sound appropriate though?

Yes, the question is appropriately asked. Normally, while asking open questions we begin with wh-words and then we follow the same syntax we follow for closed questions as formulated above.

But only if the wh-word is not a pronoun/noun phrase functioning as the subject of the verb phrase...

25. Who understands me?

This is a question, rather an open question, a wh-question. But here we don't have any auxiliary verb because the sentence is in simple aspect and the wh-word 'who' is actually the pronoun which functions as the subject of the verb phrase 'understands'.

26. Which part of this discussion is bothering you?

This is also an open question, a wh-question. Here also we don’t require to move the auxiliary verb ‘is’ [‘be’] after the wh-word ‘which’ for the noun phrase ‘which part of this discussion’ functions as the subject of the verb phrase ‘is bothering’.

27. Whom should I explain again?

This is also a question, an open question, a wh-question... But, here the wh-word 'whom', though a pronoun/noun phrase, is not functioning as the subject of the verb phrase 'should explain'. Hence here we move the auxiliary 'should' after the wh-word that begins the question and get the above question asked.

28. Do you find the discussion still confusing? 

I think you just require some more time. Why don't you go for a break right now? Come back again when you are ready for studying some more questions on your own. Find them on any question bank, or just follow the questions you find being asked by people around you. Study their structures and compare them with the structures of questions discussed here. 

Ask me whenever you face any difficulty or get stalled by confusion. And I am quite sure you will get a good hold over this very soon.