The Beginner's Guide To Asking Questions In English

Many an English learner, nay, every English language learner has had difficulties with asking questions in English. “How do I form questions?” is one of the most common predicaments learners face, right next to using prepositions correctly, and finding out when to use in, on, and at. Well, first things first, let’s see how you can speed up your question-learning efforts at one of San Diego language schools.

‍How many types of questions are there in English?

Asking questions is rather difficult in the beginning of your English learning efforts, and it is one of the biggest problems University of California Department of Linguistics identifies with language learners.

So, we know you’re here because you want to learn how to actually form questions in English, but before you can do that, it is good to first get familiar with the many types of questions English has to offer.

As there are numerous questions types in the English language, we are going to concern ourselves with the four basic types you’ll most frequently be using in conversation.

“Yes / No” questions

The simplest question type in English, the “Yes / No” questions, should be the first thing for you to learn how to ask properly, so as to get accustomed to the process of inversion that goes hand in hand with asking questions.

These questions are often used in everyday situations, whether for asking about somebody’s opinion, or inviting an individual to an activity. As they are really frequent, they are pretty useful to master too.

“Wh-” or special questions

“Wh-” questions are the next level of asking questions in English. If you want to inquire about some information, you have to know “Wh-” questions. You cannot further your English if you’re unfamiliar with this type of question.

The name “Wh-” questions stems from the fact that, at the beginning of the questions, you use words that begin with “wh” - what, where, who, which, why, when, how, how many, etc. Yes, some of them begin with “how”, but that’s English for you.

Indirect questions

Indirect questions are also handy to know because they’re used when you want to sound polite and respectful. It is easy for English language learners to fall into the trap of sounding blunt or harsh without wanting to, and it is because they haven’t perfected their indirect questions.

If you’re about to ask a stranger for the time, wording your questions in the manner of “What time is it?” is grammatically correct, but culturally unsound, as it gives off the wrong impression.

Therefore, you should use an indirect question, beginning with modal verbs could or would, and throw in some “please” in there to get “Could you please tell me the time?”. But more on that later.

Disjunctive or “tag” questions

Finally, we come to the type of questions you won’t be using as regularly as the ones mentioned before, but will use them from time to time. You ask a disjunctive question when you need confirmation from the person you’re speaking with, in order to clarify that the information has been well received.

‍How to form questions in English?

Now, we come to the part you’ve all been waiting for -  guidelines for forming questions in English. We’re going to take you through every question type step by step, and try to be as clear as possible.

This can be a confusing affair, especially when you get to see the methods for forming every question type in front of you at the same time. But, don’t get discouraged, it’s all a matter of careful reading and diligent practice. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

How do I form “Yes / No” questions?

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

1. Write an affirmative sentence, such as “She is breathtaking!”
2. Now, switch places of the noun - “she”, and the verb “to be” - “is”. This process is called inversion.
3. Now, you get “Is she breathtaking?”. And, that’s a question someone can answer.

So, these are “Yes / No” questions with the verb “to be”. Now, let’s take a look at questions with “do” or “does”, when the verb is not “to be”.

1. So, an affirmative sentence of “She plays football”.
2. Now, begin the sentence with “does”, and take the “s” off the main verb “plays”.
3. You get “Does she play football?”

The process is the same for “Yes / No” questions in all other tenses, with the exception that you’re going to be using either the verb “do” in a different tense, or the verb “have”, depending on the tense the questions should be in.

How do I form “Wh-” questions?

Now, the tricky bit. But it’s not as difficult as it sounds, don’t worry.

1. Let’s take an affirmative sentence with a lot of information, for example “Mike usually plays the guitar in his room at 5PM for half an hour.”
2. If you want to know who plays the guitar, you’re going to simply replace “Mike” with “Who”, and get “Who usually plays the guitar in his room at 5PM for half an hour?”.
3. For other “Wh-” questions, you’ll need the auxiliary verb, most frequently “do”.
4. If you need to know where or what Mike does, you'll, again, delete that piece of information, and ask a question about it, inserting the auxiliary verb - “Where does Mike play the guitar at 5PM for half an hour?” or “What does Mike play in his room at 5PM for half an hour?”. You see, not that difficult.
5. Finally, if you need to ask a question about the duration, you need to use “How”, and get - “How long does Mike play the guitar in his room…” You get the idea.

These are the basics of “Wh-” questions, and it’s all you need for the time being. Later on, when you’ve perfected these staples, you can move on to forming more difficult special questions.

How do I form indirect questions?

We’re pretty much already said it when we were explaining what indirect questions actually are. The main thing you need to know about forming indirect questions is that you should try to use modal verbs of different degree, depending on the situation, and that you should try to use “please” whenever you can, as it makes you sound more polite.

1. Take a basic question, such as “What time is it?” or “Where’s the bus station?” and start there.
2. Now, use a modal verb “could” to soften the question up - “Could you tell me…?” or “Could you please tell me…?”
3. We left out the ending on purpose, as you need to take the verb “to be” and place it at the end of the sentence. So, it is incorrect to ask “Could you tell me where is the bus station?”. The correct way is to ask this question is “Could you tell me where the bus station is?”

That’s it, nothing more to indirect questions. Just try to sound as polite as possible, and you’ll be alright.

How do I form disjunctive questions?

The easiest way to learn to form these questions is to think of them as consisting of two parts - the positive and the negative part, or vice versa.

1. Take an affirmative sentence, such as “Jane sent him to school”.
2. Now, if you want to make a question out of it, all you need is a question tag at the end of the sentence. Mind you, if the first part is affirmative, the question tag is negative, and if the first part is negative, the question tag is positive. So, “Jane sent him to school, didn’t she?”
3. As you can see, the question tag at the end depends on the tense and the auxiliary verb that goes with that tense. The same sentence could have a different question tag in another tense, for example “Jane’s sending him to school, isn’t she?”.
4. Finally, you can have a negative first part too - “She isn’t going to come with me, is she?”, and you can surely notice that the question tag is positive.

And that’s disjunctive questions done!

“Is there a language school in San Diego I can learn all of this at?”

To be completely honest, there are many private language schools in San Diego you can go to if you want to learn how to form questions, but there is only a single one where you’ll do it quickly and efficiently - College of English Language!

We have locations all over the coast, we employ only the most experienced and enthusiastic teaching staff, and we have all the amenities any English language learner could ever need. If you’re ever at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, stop by, one of our schools is never too far away, and ask when you can start!