Question forms & tag questions (intro)
Wh-/yes-no questions and question tags.
Forming questions in English requires inverting the subject and auxiliary verb. For yes/no questions, we place the auxiliary (do/does/did, is/are/was/were, have/has, or a modal) before the subject: 'Does she play tennis?' For Wh- questions, the question word comes first, then the auxiliary, then the subject: 'Where does she play?' However, when the question word is the SUBJECT (asking WHO or WHAT did something), we do NOT invert and do NOT add do/does/did: 'Who broke the window?' (not 'Who did break?'). Tag questions are short questions added to the end of a statement to check or confirm. The rule is: a POSITIVE statement takes a NEGATIVE tag, and a NEGATIVE statement takes a POSITIVE tag. The tag must use the SAME auxiliary as the main clause. 'She is your teacher, isn't she?' — positive statement, negative tag, auxiliary 'is'. 'They didn't come, did they?' — negative statement, positive tag, auxiliary 'did'. For example: 'You can swim, can't you?' uses 'can' in both the statement and the tag.
Rules
- 1For yes/no questions, invert the subject and auxiliary: 'Is he ready?' / 'Did they arrive?' — never use 'do' with 'be' or modals.
- 2For Wh- questions, the order is: question word → auxiliary → subject → main verb: 'What did you buy?'
- 3For SUBJECT questions (who/what as subject), use no auxiliary and keep normal word order: 'Who called you?' NOT 'Who did call you?'
- 4Tag questions follow the rule: positive statement → negative tag; negative statement → positive tag: 'She reads a lot, doesn't she?' / 'He won't come, will he?'
- 5The tag must use the SAME auxiliary verb (or same modal) as the statement: 'They have finished, haven't they?' — NOT 'don't they?'
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard