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
Hello Via,
This is explained above. 'do' and 'does' are used to ask questions with many verbs in the present simple and 'did' is used in the same way, but to speak about the past.
If there's a specific part of the explanation you have a question about, please let us know.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Risa warysha,
This sentence is grammatically correct, though I would probably say 'Never did I speak to my mother about the issue, and neither did my father.' This is because this sort of grammar (with a negative or restrictive word at the beginning followed the verb) is rather formal and so it sounds a bit odd to use familiar terms such as 'mom' and 'dad' with it.
I'm afraid I don't know if the statement is true or not.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello M19,
Great -- we're glad to hear this!
This page presents only the basics of question forms. All of the forms you mention are also correct and are not mentioned here because they are more advanced.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again M19,
Yes, you could change the sentence and ask it in the ways you have suggested -- that is, you can say both 'How much Korean do you speak?' and 'How much Korean can you speak?'.
For Task 7.1, 'Do' is also a grammatically correct answer, though of course that answer is not an option in the task.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team