Let's start with the textbook but as some of the students are still trying to get it, I'll introduce the main grammar point of this lesson: how to make questions in English.
I'm absolutley sure you know how to make questions but let's check there are no doubts, especially in those cases which are a bit different. This is a summary of the kind of questions you can find:
- YES/NO questions: as they have this kind of answer, they are also called "total" questions. The structures is AUXILIARY+SUBJECT+MAIN VERB. These are some examples:
- Is he attending our class? --- Yes, he is Can you drive? ----- No, I can't
- "Partial" questions: when you only ask something in particular, that is, a "part" of the sentence; these questions start with WH-words but you also need the inversion, as you can see in these examples:
- WHERE was he born? ----- He was born in Murcia.
- HOW MANY children have you got? ----- I've got 2, a boy and a girl.
- HOW MUCH sugar do you need? ----- Just a little.
- WHY did you phone Susan yesterday? ------ Because I wanted to meet her.
- Exceptions: when the WH-word has the function of the subject in the questionyou don't have to use the inversion; have a look at the examples to see how they work:
- WHO is coming tonight? ----- A few friends (THEY are coming)
- HOW MANY friends are coming? ----- Just 3 or 4 close friends.
- HOW MUCH sugar is needed? ----- Not much (Not much sugar is needed)
- WHAT happened to you? ----- Nothing (nothing happened to me).
- Negative questions: if you use the negative form contracted, there's no change; however, if you use it as a normal adverb, it'll take that position. Look at the examples:
- Aren't they coming? BUT Are they not coming?
- Indirect questions: as you only have one question mark in a single question, you can't use two inversions, just one. Let's see the examples:
- Can you tell me where the car is?
- Do you know what the answer is in this item?
- Questions with prepositions: when the main verb of the question or an adjective go with preposition this should be kept in their natural position, as you can see in the examples below:
- How many people do you work with at work? --- I work with 2 people
- What are you listening to? ---- I'm listening to classical music
- What sort of music are you fond of? ---- I'm fond of salsa
If you have time, visit this link with examples of questions; it'll be pretty useful, I think. At the end you have some exercises but you'd better practise orally, paying attention to grammar and entonation. These are suggestions to review questions:
- A goog exercise is to take a sentence and to ask about different parts of it:
- Yesterday Peter came to school by car because he was late --- Who came by car? How did he come to school? When did he come by car? Why did he do that? etc.
- Another good way to practise questions is by asking about a story or a fairy tale, like in the example:
- Cinderella: Who was she? How many sisters did she have? Why was she so unhappy? What happened to her during the ball? What did the prince do? etc.
- You can do something similar but with a real anecdote. Try to ask the questions below and you'll realise you have the way to write about that. These are some examples:
- A trip: When? Who with? How? How long? Where? What was it like? Why? etc.
- An embarrassing moment in your life
- What I used to do as a child
Hope this entry will be useful. See you in class and remember to do the reading comprehension and the exercises of vocabulary on pages10 and 11 of your textbook..
