Question forms – additional grammar

Question words

Who? – we ask about people e.g. Who is that girl? She’s my sister.

Whose? – we ask who something belongs to e.g. Whose coat is that? It’s Helen’s.

What? - we ask about animals, things, actions, professions, etc e.g. What does he do? He’s a teacher.
What colour is your car? It’s red.

Which? - we ask about a person or thing (we choose from a small group). e.g. Which dress do you
like, the green or the red one? The green one.

Where? - we ask about the place. e.g. Where do you live? In Rome.

When? - we ask about time. e.g. When is he coming? On Monday.

Why? – we ask about the reason why something happens. e.g. Why didn’t you call me yesterday?
Because I wasn’t at home.

How? – we ask about the way something happens or about someone’s health. e.g. How do you go to
work? By bus. How are you? I’m fine.

How often? – we ask about the frequency of an action. e.g. How often do you go to the cinema?
Twice a month.

How old? - we ask about someone’s age. e.g. How old are you? I’m 15.

How many/How much? – we ask about quantity. e.g. How many brothers or sisters do you have?
How much pocket money do you get from your parents? Not much.

What time? – we ask about the exact hour. e.g. What time is the film? It’s at 20.00.

How + adjective/adverb – we ask about specific information. e.g. How tall is he? He’s 170 cm tall.

Subject Questions – Object questions

We use who, what, which to ask about the subject or the object of a sentence.

When we ask about the subject, we form questions without auxiliary verbs.

e.g. Dave visited Mary. – Who visited Mary?

When we ask about the object, we form questions with auxiliary verbs.

e.g. Dave visited Mary. - Who did David visit?

We usually answer subject questions with short answers (subject + auxiliary verb):

Who will help me? John will.

Who is leaving now? Betty is.

Who gave you this book? My father did.

Practice.

Ask questions about the underlined words in the sentences.

1. Angela goes to school by bus.

How does she go to school?

2. The cat is in the bin.

Where is the cat?

3. Kathy is painting the house.

Who is painting the house?

4. It’s Tony’s locker.

Whose locker is this?

5. There are four plates on the table.

How many plates on the table?

6. Susan is writing a letter.

What is Susan writing?

7. My brother hates aliens.

Who hates aliens?

8. Jim gave me a ticket to the match.

What did Jim give me?

9. Gary told me a secret.

What did he tell me?

10. I invited all my friends from school to my party.

Who did I invite to my party?

11. The cat chased the bird.

Who chased the bird?

12. The car hit a tree.

What did the car hit?

Put the words in the correct order.

1. you eat What do for breakfast usually?

What do you usually eat for breakfast?

2. is Who brother your?

Who is your brother?

3. laptop is Whose this?

Whose is this laptop?

4. Why so leaving are early you?

Why are you leaving so early?

5. festival When food is the?

When is the festival food?

6. are Where waiting us for they?

Where are they waiting for us?

7. here lives Who?

Who lives here?

8. the is Where new centre shopping?

Where is the new centre shopping?

NAME: Christian Limaico