This question may seem obvious (clear), but it’s good to review. There are generally three types of sentences: statements, commands and questions.
Statements are sentences that state (tell) information:
- I like dogs.
- My aunt lives in Bulgaria.
- Cows have four legs.
Commands are sentences that give orders (tell people to do actions). This is also sometimes called the “imperative.”
- Be quiet!
- Please open the window.
- First, put a spoonful of butter into a hot pan.
Questions are sentences that ask for information. Today we’ll look at three types of questions: (1) “yes/no” questions, (2) “wh-” questions and (3) “tag” questions. For each type, we’ll see many example questions in different tenses.
English Grammar Words to Know for Asking Questions
I’ll try to keep this post as simple as possible, but there are a few words you should know to help you better understand this post. If you already know these words, you can skip ahead to the next section!
Verbs
A verb is an action word. It’s usually the most important part of any sentence because it tells you what is happening. For this post, you should know two types of verbs: main verbs and auxiliary verbs.
- Main verb: The main verb is the “action” word in a sentence. For example, in the sentence “Bobby eats a salad,” the word “eats” is the main verb. If a sentence only has one verb, you can simply call it the “verb.”
- Auxiliary verb: Auxiliary verbs are verbs that are used together with a main verb. Auxiliary verbs are usually some form of words like “be,” “have” or “do,” but also modal verbs like “can” or “will.” An auxiliary verb is also sometimes called a “helping verb” or just “auxiliary.” For example, in the sentence “Bobby doesn’t eat fish,” the word “doesn’t” is the auxiliary and the word “eat” is the main verb.
Nouns
A noun is a person, place, thing or idea. Depending on how you use nouns, they can also have different names:
- Subject: The subject is a noun that “does” an action. For example, in “Bobby eats a salad,” the subject is “Bobby” because Bobby is the person doing the action.
- Object: The object is a noun that “receives” an action. In the example above, the object is “a salad,” because it’s receiving the action.
Tenses
When talking about grammar, “tense” indicates when actions happen. There are three basic tenses: past, present and future. Each of those tenses can be simple, perfect or continuous (also called “progressive”).
- Simple tenses: Simple tenses use the most basic forms of verbs: “Doctor Smith treats patients.”
- Perfect tenses: Perfect tenses use some form of the auxiliary verb “to have” plus the past participle form of the verb: “Doctor Smith has treated 200 patients this year.”
- Continuous tenses: Continuous tenses use some form of the verb “to be” plus a verb that ends with “-ing”: “Doctor Smith is treating a patient.”
That should be enough basic vocabulary to help you understand this article, so let’s start by looking at our first type of question.