“to be”: questions & short answers
Yes/No and Wh- questions with be.
In English, 'to be' (am / is / are) changes its position when we ask questions. In a statement we say 'She is a student,' but to make a Yes/No question we move 'be' to the front: 'Is she a student?' To answer, we use a short form: 'Yes, she is' or 'No, she isn't.' We never repeat the full sentence. For Wh- questions we put the question word first, then 'be', then the subject: 'What is your name?' / 'Where are your books?' / 'Who is that boy?' The question word tells us what kind of information we need: 'What' for things or identity, 'Where' for places, 'Who' for people. Remember: 'am' is used only with 'I', 'is' with he/she/it and singular nouns, and 'are' with you/we/they and plural nouns. For example: 'Are you a student?' — 'Yes, I am.'
Rules
- 1Move 'be' before the subject to form a Yes/No question: She is kind. → Is she kind?
- 2Short answers repeat only the subject pronoun + be (or be + n't): Yes, I am. / No, it isn't.
- 3Never use 'do/does' to make questions with 'to be': say 'Is he happy?', NOT 'Does he is happy?'
- 4Wh- questions follow the pattern: Wh-word + be + subject: Where are the cats? / Who is that girl?
- 5Use 'am' with I, 'is' with he/she/it (singular), and 'are' with you/we/they (plural).
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard
10 random questions per test