Question Words| Asking Questions| WH family

Asking questions and giving answers should be very clear to understand as it is the basics of great conversations.

In this lesson, you will improve the structure of your questions so that you can enjoy your English conversations.

It is very important for us to work on our Q&A skills (Question and answers skills). If question word is misunderstood, the information provided in the answer will be wrong.

Let’s understand the question structure in English.

There are for main parts which you need to remember.

1. Question words:
2. Auxiliary verbs or modal auxiliary verbs or helping verbs
3. Subject
4. Main verb

Are you wondering to understand the question words?

No worries, Here are the correct uses of question words mention below:

1. Question words:

What – Information/Object/ Action

Who – Person

Why – Reason

When- Time

Where- Place

Whose-  possession( possession by people, animals, and things)

Which-  choice (when the number of choices is limited)

How – Process/way /method/information

 Examples : 

What are you doing?

What is this on your table?

What do you know about Music?

Who is this Man?

Why did you come late?

When do you go to your school?

Where is the supermarket?

Whose bag is this?

which color do you like most Red or Blue?

How do you make chapattis?

Also, There are different uses of the question word ‘How’ Or question phrases like how long, how often, how much, how many.

How many shirts = count

How did you solve this problem? = process/method of solution

How is your brother now? = condition

How come you never told me about the result? = Why/reason

How long will you finish your task? = Time/ moment

How often does she visit her hometown? = Time period

2. Auxiliary verbs or modal auxiliary verbs and helping verb (be/do/have … also can/should/may/will)

3. Subject (I /we /you/ they/he/she/it )
4. Main verb (Go, Eat, Play fly etc.)

These four things you should write in the same order:

1. Question words:
2. Auxiliary verbs or modal auxiliary verbs or helping verbs
3. Subject
4. Main verb

Now, look the complete sentence after using above four points for correct sentence structure.

How are you doing?

 How                        are                        you              doing?

     ⇓                             ⇓                              ⇓                     ⇓

Question word       auxiliary verb         subject        Main Verb

How long do you study? 

How long                    do                               you                   study?

⇓                                      ⇓                                 ⇓                         ⇓

 Question phrase    auxiliary verb         Subject            main verb

  Do you like papaya?

 Here we don’t have question word but we do have the other parts of the English question structure.

Question word, subject auxiliary verb, and the main verb

These types of questions are also perfectly acceptable too. In most of the cases, we don’t need to have a question words.

There are two types of question in English:

• Close questions
• Open Questions

Close questions – a question which starts from an auxiliary verb.

This question requires just a simple answer yes or no. The details in the answer are not important.

The answer can be yes or no. The explanation is not really important here. You can answer in one word.

Do you take tea daily?

No, I don’t or yes

Can you buy this book for me?

Yes, I can or no, I can’t

 Are you enjoying the party?

Yes, I am, or no I’m not

Did you?

No, I did not or yes I did

Have you?

No, I haven’t or yes I have

Are you?

No, I am not or yes I am not

Open Questions

Open Questions- a question which starts from question word or a question phrase and they require detail answers.

In Open Questions, answer directly respond to the information in the question. The details in the answer are important. The explanation is very important here. You cannot answer in one word.

Where do you live?

I live in the US with my sister.

Why do you live in the US?

I live in the US for my studies also I am learning some skills.

PROOFREAD AND CORRECT THESE QUESTIONS:

1. What your name?
2. Who your Uncle?
3. He coming when to class?
4. Where he lives?
5. We how read a do newspaper?
6. You when do eat your meal?
7. how he rides a bike?
8. Do go to the park?

EXERCISE 

Write the correct question word at the beginning and punctuation mark at the end:

How, Who, Where, Do, What, When, Why

_______ is your school

___ _______ is your favorite food

____ _________ do you fly a kite, I want to learn

___ _______ old are you

___ _________ were you yesterday

_______ we have any pen

___ _______ are you crying