Asking questions
Ask who, what, where, when, why and how, in the right order. Lesson 5 of 58: Foundations, CEFR A1.
The question words
- Who (a person), what (a thing), where (a place), when (a time), why (a reason), how (the way), which (a choice), how much / how many (an amount).
- Who is your manager?
- Why are you learning English?
- How many people work there?
The order: QASI
- Most questions follow one order: Question word, Auxiliary (do, does, did, is, are, can…), Subject, Infinitive (the main verb). “Where do you live?” “What does she do?”
- With “be”, it is just the question word, the verb and the subject: “Where is the meeting?”
- Where do you work? (Q + do + you + work)
- What does this word mean? (Q + does + this word + mean)
- When is your birthday? (With be)
- Tip: Never put the verb after the subject in a question: not “Where you live?”, but “Where do you live?”
Yes/no questions and polite questions
- A yes/no question starts with the auxiliary: “Do you like it?” “Can you help?” To be more polite, start with “Could you tell me…” and then use normal order: “Could you tell me where the station is?”
- Do you have a minute?
- Can you send me the file?
- Could you tell me what time it starts? (Normal order after “Could you tell me”)
Lines to have ready
- What do you mean? (Asking for an explanation)
- How do you say … in English? (Learning a word)
- What does … mean? (Asking about a word)
- Could you tell me where … is? (A polite question)
- Why do you ask? (Asking about a question)
Your turn to speak
- You are getting to know a new teammate. Ask them eight questions, using a different question word for each: who, what, where, when, why, how, which and how many.
- I used eight different question words
- I put do or does in the right place
- I asked one polite “Could you tell me…” question
Related
- Lesson 4: Daily routines: the present simple
- Lesson 6: A, an, the and plurals
- The whole English course
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