1. QUESTIONS & NEGATIVES

2. YES/NO QUESTIONS can be answered with yes or no
used for asking for information (unless they contain modals – they can have different meaning then)
Are you ready? – Yes, nearly. / No, not quite.
Has anyone seen my mobile? – Yes, it’s here. / No, I haven’t.
Would you like to have a drink with me? – Yes, I’d love to. /
No, I’m afraid I don’t have enough time.

3. YES/NO QUESTIONS FORM:
a yes/no question begins with an auxiliary verb (inversion)
it is ‘be’ or ‘have’ or a modal verb (can,will, may...)
if there is no auxiliary, add ‘do’
STATEMENT
QUESTION
It is raining
Is it raining?
He has been to Japan.
Has he been to Japan?
She can come tonight.
Can she come tonight?
I live in London.
Do you live in London?
They went to France.
Did they go to France?

4. WH-QUESTIONS a wh-question begins with a question word
we use them to ask for information
question words are: who, what, which, whose, where, when, why & how
Why are you going home? (reason)
Where does he live? (place)
How long has she been there? (period of time)
How many people were there? (number)

5. WH-QUESTIONS
FORM
after the question word there is an auxiliary verb, then the subject and the main verb
if there is no auxiliary, add ‘do’
What is Tony doing?
Where do they go?
if there is more than one auxiliary verb, only the first one comes before the subject
How long have you been waiting here?
What should I have said in that situation?

6. QUESTION PHRASES
question words can combine with nouns, adjectives and adverbs
What time is your friend arriving?
What kind of a club is it?
What sort of books do you read?
What colour are your new shoes?
How fast does your car go?
How old is your sister?
How much money do you spend?
How far is the beach?

7. WHAT & WHICH in most cases there is no difference between what & which
What is the biggest city in your country? OR
Which is the biggest city in your country?
however, if the speaker has a limited number of choices in mind, we use which
Which coat is yours, the blue one or the black one?
if the speaker has an unlimited number of choices in mind, we use what
What car do you drive? (of all the models in the world)

8. SUBJECT/OBJECT QUESTIONS
who & what can be the subject of a question;
the word order is the same as in statements
who & what can also be the object; in that case we need an auxiliary (inversion)
SUBJECT
OBJECT
Who rang you?
(someone rang you)
Who did you ring?
(you rang somebody)
Who is helping you?
(someone is helping you)
Who are you helping?
(you are helping someone)
What will happen next?
(something will happen next)
What will they do next?
(they will do something)

9. SUBJECT/OBJECT QUESTIONS
which, whose, how many & how much can also be either the subject or the object
SUBJECT
OBJECT
Which program will work best?
(one of the programs will work best)
Which program will you use?
(you will use one of the programs )
Whose dog is barking over there?
(someone’s dog is barking)
Whose dog is she walking?
(she is walking someone’s dog)
How many people came past?
(some people came past)
How many people did you see?
(you saw some people)
How much oil got into the river?
(some oil got into the river)
How much oil did you buy?
(you bought some oil)

10. PREPOSITIONS IN WH-QUESTIONS
a question word can be the object of a preposition
What are you looking for? (you are looking for something)
What are you worrying about? (you are worrying about something)
the preposition normally comes in the same place as in statements
For what are you looking?
About what are you worrying?

11. PREPOSITIONS IN WH-QUESTIONS
a question with what...for asks about purpose
What are these bricks for? – We are going to build a wall.
What are they digging a tunnel for? – To finish the road.
what...for means the same as why
Why are they digging a tunnel? – To finish the road.
a question with what...like asks for description
What was the party like? (tell me something about it)
What is she like? (tell me something about her)
What does she look like? (describe her looks)
a question with how asks about someone’s well-being
How is your mother? Any better after the flu?

12. INDIRECT QUESTIONS
indirect or reported questions are no longer questions by form – i.e. there is no inversion and no do/does/did
if there is a question mark at the end, that is because of the beginning of the question
I wonder what she is doing.
I wonder what is she doing.
Do you remember how she made the salad?
Do you remember how did she make the salad?
Do you know what time it is?
Do you know what time is it?

13. NEGATIVE STATEMENTS
we make the negatives by adding not (n’t) after the auxiliary verb
if there is no auxiliary, not (n’t) is added to do/does/did
He isn’t playing computer games.
They haven’t seen the film yet.
She wasn’t listening to me.
He won’t be arriving soon.
They don’t have any children.
She doesn’t drive a car.
We didn’t go to Italy.

14. NEGATIVE STATEMENTS infinitives and –ing forms can also be negative
We decided not to do anything.
He likes not working. It suits him.
not can go with other parts of the sentence
Ask him, not me.
I drink tea, not coffee.
when we introduce negative ideas with think, believe, suppose and imagine, we make these verbs negative, not the second ones
I don’t think you should smoke that much.
I don’t suppose you would go out with me?

15. NEGATIVE STATEMENTS
we can also use no before a noun or an adjective + noun
the verb then has to be positive because English can never have double negation
No smoking is allowed here.
No smoking isn’t allowed here.
There are no new houses in the village.
There aren’t no new houses in the village.

16. NEGATIVE QUESTIONS negative questions can express various ideas
Haven’t you quit smoking? (surprise)
Don’t you think you should drink less? (suggestion)
Wouldn’t it be better to go tomorrow? (persuasion)
Can’t you do anything right? (criticism)
Isn’t it a lovely day?! (exclamation)

17. NEGATIVE QUESTIONS
in the main use of negative questions, the speaker would normally expect a positive situation, but now expresses a negative situation and is therefore surprised
Don’t you like chocolate? Everybody loves it!
Haven’t you done the dishes? What have you been doing in the kitchen then?
negative questions can also mean confirm what I think is true
Haven’t we met somewhere before?
Didn’t we speak about that last week?

18. AVALIABLE AT:
by Irene, 2009