Look at these examples to see how questions are made.
Is he a teacher?
Does she eat meat?
When did you get here?
How much does a train ticket cost?
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
To make questions, we often put the verb before the subject. This is called inversion.
| Affirmative | Question |
| I am late. | Am I late? |
| I can help. | Can I help? |
| She is sleeping. | Is she sleeping? |
| We have met before. | Have we met before? |
If there is a question word (why, what, where, how, etc.), it goes before the verb.
| Question | Question with question word |
| Are you late? | Why are you late? |
| Was she there? | When was she there? |
| Can I help? | How can I help? |
| Have we met before? | Where have we met before? |
This is true for sentences with be, sentences that have auxiliary verbs (e.g. They are waiting. She has finished.) and sentences with modal verbs (can, will, should, might, etc.).
Questions in the present simple and past simple
For other verbs in the present simple, we use the auxiliary verb do/does in the question.
| Affirmative | Question | Question with question word |
| You work at home. | Do you work at home? | Where do you work? |
| It costs £10. | Does it cost £10? | How much does it cost? |
We use the auxiliary verb did in the past simple.
| Affirmative | Question | Question with question word |
| She went home. | Did she go home? | Where did she go? |
| They went to the cinema. | Did they go to the cinema? | Where did they go? |
Subject questions
In some questions, who or what is the subject of the verb. There is no inversion of subject and verb in these questions.
Who broke the window?
Who is knocking on the door?
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Please help me with the meaning of one single word in a sentence. I am not certain how to understand the word "generous" in the following sentence:
"John's will and testament, which has survived, is a generous document."
Does generous here means "charitable" and "giving" or does it mean "large" and "copious"?
How do you, as a native speaker, understand this?
Thank you for any help.
Hello EliasM,
To be honest I'm not sure as both meanings could apply here. Perhaps seeing the sentence in a broader context would offer more clues as to the author's intention but by itself I would say that the sentence is ambiguous - possibly deliberately so.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,
You haven't talked about the verb "Have" in this lesson or it falls into the category "Questions in the present simple and past simple". If I have an affirmative sentence "You have a bike", how do we do the question and Question with question word in the present simple and in the past simple?
Thank you in advance.
Hi Ama1,
That's right, it falls in the same category so the questions are:
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello, there。
The first grammar test, no.5 sees got wrong。
because the "children" were plural, it should be like "they"。
so, the auxiliary should use the "Do" instead of "Does".
please, check it out is there got something wrong。
Hi kyazall,
I'll try to help. That's right, "children" is plural and the same as "they". In a present tense sentence, the auxiliary is "do": Do the children go to the park?
However, in question 5, the person says "went" in the next sentence. So, they are talking about the past, not the present. The past form of "do" is "did": Did the children go to the park?
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thanks, Jonathan R.
That makes sense, but it seems the question has changed. because I saw the answer was "does" last time.
But anyway, thanks for your reply. Thanks for fixing the question. Good luck.
The subject question for "She broke the window" is Who broke the window?
However, we say "Why did she break the window?" or "How did she break the window?"
Can you explain why the tense of the verb changes here.
Thank you.
Hello Waldorf Wonderland,
There is no tense change here. Broke is the past simple form of 'break' and 'did [she] break' is the past simple question form of the same verb.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
In subject question (present indefinite) "s" or "es" invert or not for example which one sentence is correct
Who teach you? or who teaches? you
Who beat her ? or who beats her?
Please send me reply I am confused which one is correct?