Yes/No questions are basic questions in English.

They are called Yes/No questions because the answer is "yes" or "no". Example: Do you like pizza?

Yes I do. No I don't. Yes/No Questions use 2 forms: 1. Be 2. Do/Does

Verb to Be
Structure BE + Are you Canadian? Is she tall? SUBJECT Yes I am. Yes she is. + Adjective/Noun No I am not.

Do/Does
DO/DOES Do you play baseball? + SUBJECT Yes I do. + VERB No I do not. No she does not. No they do not.

Does she live in Yes she does. Japan? Do they want a Yes they do. pen?

Yes-no questions
Yes or no questions are questions whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no".

How to form yes-no questions

In English, a special word order (Verb Subject Object) is used to form yes-no questions. Examples:

Affirmative

Yes or No Question

They are American Are they American? She is nice The rules
1.If the main verb of the sentence is "to be", simply invert the subject and the verb to be: Examples:

Is she nice?

They are American. Are they American? They are nice. Are they nice?

2.If the sentence includes a main verb and another or other helping (auxiliary) verb(s), invert the subject and the (first) helping (auxiliary) verb. Examples:

They are visiting Paris. Are they visiting Paris? She has done the housework. Has she done the housework Nancy has been working all night long. Has Nancy been working all night long? He will be reading the book. Will he be reading the book?

3.If the sentence includes a verb which is not the verb "to be" and doesn't include a helping (auxiliary) verb, the transformation is more complex. a.If the verb is in the present tense, add either do or does and put the main verb in its base form:

do if the subject is the first person singular, second person singular, first person plural, second person plural and third person plural (I, you, we, they) Examples: I like apples. Do you like apples? They go to a high school. Do the go to a high school?

does if the subject is the third person singular (he, she, it). Examples: Nancy reads a lot. Does Nancy read a lot? He hates basketball. Does he hate basketball?

b.If the verb is in the past tense, add did and put the main verb in its base form: Examples:

He discovered the truth. Did he discover the truth? She write a nice essay. Did she write a nice essay? They did the homework. Did they do the homework?

WH questions ask for information. They are different than Yes/No questions. There are 6 different WH question words: Question
What When Who Where Why How Thing Time Person Place Reason Directions/Feelings

Answer

Example
What is that? When is the game? Who do you live with? Where do you live? Why are you happy? How are you?

STRUCTURE
WH questions in simple present use do or be:

WH Questions with "do"

WH + DO/DOES + SUBJECT + VERB Examples: * Where do you work? * When does she wake up? * Who is your brother?

WH Questions with "be"

WH + BE + SUBJECT Examples: * Where are you from? * Who is that man? * When is your class?

WH Questions are similar to YES/NO questions except they have WH words at the start. Examples: Are you from Canada? * Where are you from? Here are some example questions and answers: * Where are you from? * I am from Japan. * What is your name? * My name is Jacob. * When do you wake up? * I wake up at 7:30 am. * Why are you angry? * I am angry because I did not pass my exam.

alternative question
By Richard Nordquist

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An alternative question

Definition: A type of question (or interrogative) that offers the listener a closed choice between two or more answers. In conversation, an alternative question typically ends with a fallingintonation.

Examples and Observations:

Amelia: Are you coming or going? Viktor Navorski: I don't know. Both. (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Tom Hanks in The Terminal, 2004)

"Would you rather have some wind farms off the Cape Cod coast, or would you rather have an oil spill?" (Bill Maher, Real Time With Bill Maher, April 30, 2010) "I just said 'fantasy' and 'struggle' in the same sentence, and on one level, at least, I guess that's what it's about. That's what it's about for cowgirls, and maybe everybody else. A lot of life boils down to the question of whether a person is going to be able to realize his fantasies, or else end up surviving only through compromises he can't face up to. The way I figure it, Heaven and Hell are right here on Earth. Heaven is living in your hopes and Hell is living in your fears. It's up to each individual which one he chooses." (Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Houghton Mifflin, 1976)

"The term alternative question is commonly applied to questions of all the following forms: a. Did Mary arrive on the 1:00 plane, or is she coming on the 3:00 plane? b. Did Mary arrive on the 1:00 plane or on the 3:00 plane? c. Which plane did Mary arrive on--the 1:00 plane or the 3:00 plane? These three types of questions enumerate a set of possible answers and direct the addressee to choose among them. Ordinary Wh-questions, by contrast, are at least ostensibly open-ended; for example, Which plane did Mary arrive on?allows any answer that names a flight, though in many cases (such as when it is known that the 1:00 plane and the 3:00 plane are the only flights on which Mary could have arrived), that distinction becomes academic." (James D. McCawley, The Syntactic Phenomena of English. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998)

Alternative Questions in the Classroom "Pedagogical alternative questions also convey assertions . . .. The first alternative, in repeating an item from the student's text or prior talk, calls it into question. When the teacher then provides an alternate, the teacher is conveying to the student that the newly proposed item should be considered over the original item. The second alternative is thus proposed as a candidate correction of the words in the first alternative. It is a candidatecorrection because it is still up to

the student to choose the second alternative. Students' answers almost invariably repeat the second, or preferred, alternative." (Irene Koshik, "Questions That Contain Information in Teacher-Student Conferences." Why Do You Ask?: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse, ed. by Alice Freed and Susan Ehrlich. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)

Alternative Questions in Surveys "Closed questions with more than one possible answer are known as multiple choice (or multi-chotomous) questions. Such a question might be: 'Which brand of beer on this list have you drunk in the last seven days?' Clearly, there is a finite number of answers; the range of possible answers does not require respondents to say anything 'in their own words.' By defining the brands of interest the questionnaire has made this a closed question." (Ian Brace, Questionnaire Design: How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey Material for Effective Market Research , 2nd ed. Kogan Page, 2008)

"[C]onsider the following question asked of single mothers. Q: Why did you choose to keep your child? A: Pressured by peers Pressured by parents Pressured by church Here is a question where, although some possible responses have been listed, there may be many other factors underlying a woman's decision to keep her child. One way to deal with this problem is to include an 'Other' category where the respondent can fill in his or her answer. The disadvantage is that those answers have to be coded in some way, and if you receive many diverse responses, you may have simply created . . . an open-ended question." (Annabel Ness Evans and Bryan J. Rooney, Methods in Psychological Research, 2nd ed. Sage, 2011)

"'Did you mean to say edit,' Maisy May said, 'or did you mean to say rewrite?' "'Well, if we feel that actual rewriting is necessary, then, yes.'"

(Kurtis Davidson, What the Shadow Told Me. Eastern Washington Univ. Press, 2005) Also Known As: nexus question, closed question, choice question, either-or question, multiple choice

Tag Questions
You speak English, don't you? A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the miniquestion at the end is called a "question tag". A "tag" is something small that we add to something larger. For example, the little piece of cloth added to a shirt showing size or washing instructions is a tag. We use tag questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation. They mean something like: "Am I right?" or "Do you agree?" They are very common in English. The basic structure is: statement question tag

+ Positive statement, negative tag?

Snow is white, isn't it?

+ Negative statement, positive tag?

You don't like me, do you?

Notice that the question tag repeats the auxiliary verb (or main verb when be) from the statement and changes it to negative or positive. A question tag is the "mini-question" at the end. A tag question is the whole sentence. We will now look at positive statement tag questions.

Positive Statement Tag Questions

Look at these examples with positive statements. You will see that most of the time, the auxiliary verb from the positive statement is repeated in the tag and changed to negative. positive statement [+] subjec t auxiliar y main verb negative tag [-] auxiliar y no t persona l pronou n (same as subject) you? we?
notes:

You We

are have

coming, finished , like like coffee, coffee,

are have

n't n't

You You

do

do do

n't n't

you? you?
You (do) like...* won't = will not

They

will

help,

wo

n't

they?

I We He You

can must should

come, go, try are harder, English ,

can must should are

't n't n't n't

I? we? he? you?

no auxiliary for main verb bepresen

John

was

there,

was

n't

he?

t & past

*Note that in this example the auxiliary verb do in the statement - "You like coffee," - is understood and not expressed because the tense is normal present simple. But the question tag uses the do auxiliary to make "don't you?" It is also possible to say: "You do like coffee, don't you?" Let's now look at negative statement tag questions.

Negative Statement Tag Questions

Look at these examples with negative statements. Notice that the negative verb in the original statement is changed to positive in the tag. negative statement [-] subject auxiliary main verb positive tag [+] auxiliary personal pronoun (same as subject) it? we? you? they? they? I? we?

It We You They They I We

is have do will wo can must

n't never n't not n't never n't

raining, seen like help, report do tell us, it right, her, that, coffee,

is have do will will can must

He You You John

should wo

n't n't

drive be are was n't not

so fast, late, English, there,

should will are was

he? you? you? he?

Notice that in the tag, we repeat the auxiliary verb, not the main verb. Except, of course, for the verb be in present simple and past simple.

"Question tags are not independent clauses, but they do require a response, and are highly interactive. Structurally, interrogatives are abbreviated yes/no interrogativesconsisting of an operator (either positive or negative) and a pronoun, which repeats thesubject or substitutes for it. Question tags are attached to one of the following clause types:

a declarative clause: It was quiet in there, wasn't it? an exclamative clause: How quiet it was in there, wasn't it?

an imperative clause: Be quiet for a moment, will you? Of these, the declarative is by far the most common." (Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course. Taylor & Francis, 2006)

Commas with a tag question "Place a comma between a statement and the brief question that follows it when thesubject of the statement and the subject of the question is the same entity (example 1). When they have different subjects, the statement and the question must be punctuated as separate grammatical elements (example 2). Examples 0. George was not there, was he? 1. I will never stay in that hotel again. Will you?

1. Tag Questions A tag question (like Rick's "wouldn't it?") is a question that's added to a declarative sentence, usually at the end, to engage the listener, verify that something has been understood, or confirm that an action has taken place.

Rick: Louis, I'll make a deal with you. Instead of this petty charge you have against him, you can get something really big, something that would chuck him in a concentration camp for years. That would be quite a feather in your cap, wouldn't it? Renault: It certainly would. Germany . . . Vichy would be grateful.

2.

Alternative Questions An alternative question (which typically ends with a falling intonation) offers the listener a closed choice between two answers.

Ilsa: After Major Strasser's warning tonight, I am frightened. Laszlo: To tell you the truth, I am frightened, too. Shall I remain here in our hotel room hiding, or shall I carry on the best I can? Ilsa: Whatever I'd say, you'd carry on. 1. Wh- Questions As the name suggests, a wh- question is one that's formed with an interrogative word (what, who, whom, whose, which, when, where, why, or how) and that allows an open-ended answer--something other than "yes" or "no."

Annina: M'sieur Rick, what kind of man is Captain Renault? Rick: Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so. Annina: No, I mean, is he trustworthy? Is his word . . . Rick: Now, just a minute. Who told you to ask me that? Annina: He did. Captain Renault did. Rick: I thought so. Where's your husband? Annina: At the roulette table, trying to win enough for our exit visa. Of course, he's losing. Rick: How long have you been married? Annina: Eight weeks. . . .

2.

Yes-No Questions Another aptly named interrogative construction, theyes-no question invites the listener to choose between only two possible answers.

Laszlo: Ilsa, I . . . Ilsa: Yes? Laszlo: When I was in the concentration camp, were you lonely in Paris? Ilsa: Yes, Victor, I was. Laszlo: I know how it is to be lonely. Is there anything you wish to tell me? Ilsa: No, Victor, there isn't.