Asking questions in English: Question forms

Asking questions in English: Question forms

Exercise 2

Choose the correct forms to complete the questions below.

Please wait...

1 How long _____ in Paris?

A.did you stay

B.were you stay

C.you stayed

2 How _____ to Barcelona?

A.did you travel

B.you travelled

C.were you travel

3 Which _____ ?

A.your favourite colour is

B.does your favourite colour be

C.is your favourite colour

4 What instrument _____ when you were a child?

A.could play you

B.could you play

C.you could play

5 Why _____ there?

A.that man's standing

B.does that man is standing

C.is that man standing

6 How much _____?

A.she has lost

B.does she have lost

C.has she lost

7 What time _____ to arrive?

A.is she going

B.she's going

C.is going

8 Where _____ last summer?

A.went he

B.did he go

C.he went

9 What time _____ to bed?

A.children should

B.should children go

C.do children should go

10 When _____ me?

A.can you see

B.can see

C.you can see

 Loading...

 

Word order in questions: Grammar chart

Download full-size image from Pinterest

Questions in general

If we want to ask a question in English, the order is QWASM: Question word, Auxiliary verb, Subject, Main verb. In Yes-No questions (questions where the answer is yes or no), there is no Question Word.

Questions with be as the main verb

When be is the main verb, it is used as the Auxiliary in the question, and then we don’t have a Main verb after the Subject.

Auxiliary verbs

In the position of Auxiliary, we can use be, do, have or any modal verb: can, could, will, would, should, etc.

Have is only an auxiliary verb in the form have got and in the present perfect.

• Have you got any brothers or sisters?
• What have you cooked for lunch?

For other uses of have, we need an auxiliary verb (do, did) for questions.

• What time had you dinner yesterday?
• What time did you have dinner yesterday?
• Have you to do it now?
• Do you have to do it now?

Have got only has a present form. It does not have a past form.

• Had you got many toys when you were a child?
• Did you have many toys when you were a child?

Question words

Download full-size image from Pinterest

How much

We can use how much to ask about the price of something.

• How much is the jacket?

How + adjective

We can use how + adjective (any adjective) as a question word.

• How tall are you?
• How fast is your car?

Which vs what

We can use which + noun, and we can also use what + noun. We use which when there are a small number of possible answers. Look at the difference:

• Which car do you like, the red or the blue? (there is a small number of possible answers)
• ‘What car have you got?’ ‘A Mercedes.’ (many possible answers)