Odd questions-45

                       Odd questions in English - 45                                                                                                                                                                                                             

I. Questions in Statement/sentence/declaration form

Statements can be converted into questions by rising the intonation. The question can have
positive or negative bias. These type of questions are called Declarative question

Note: Intonation = The rise or fall of the  Pitch of the Voice (of Speech)

Model declarative questions.

You haven’t paid the tax? (The Implied meaning  is - Why haven’t you paid the tax?)

She is in the office? (The implied meaning  is – Why is she still in the office?)

They are Germans? (= Are they Germans?.)

Joe isn’t in the town?( = Isn't Joe in the town?)

The schools open tomorrow? (= Do schools Open tomorrow?)

NOTE: The positive or negative bias depends on the tone, intonation and body language of the speaker.

II. Echo question

In this type the key words of the sentence spoken by the  speaker are repeated (Echoed) as a question.

A. They left for Berlin – Statement

     They left for Berlin? (or) Left for Berlin? (or) Left? (or)  Berlin? - Echo question

B. He Speaks Five Languages – Statement

     He Speaks five languages? (or) speaks five languages? (or) five languages? - Echo question

C. She visits office once in a month?

    She visits office once in  a month? (or) Once in a month? (or) a month etc. - Echo question 

III.  Formulaic Utterance

A. In an informal chat the following statements serve as questions.

When you are busy with your friend in a café the waiter may ask you,

One more drink?/  more fries?/ another cigarette?

B. In college campus a group of students  may ask another group,

Joining us now?   

Coming tomorrow at Butlers? etc.

IV Multiple ‘wh’ question

In a casual talk sometimes we may utter multiple ‘wh’ question type question words, out of anxiety.

A. The children escaped. – Statement

When? How? Whose children? Where? etc.

B. Bill got married.

Who with? When? Where? etc.

V. What is a Tag Question? 

Tag questions are added at the end of a statement In a tag question if the statement is positive the tag is negative and if the statement is negative the tag is positive

e.g. She is a teacher –  Statement à Positive

        Isn’t She – Tag question à negative

        They aren’t Americans  - Statement à negative

        Are they – Tag question  à positive

Tag question with positive Statement and Positive tag question

They are Musicians. – Statement

Oh, they are, are they? – Positive Tag question

She is in Moscow – Statement 

She is, Is she? – Positive Tag question

NOTE: Some times this type of questions are used as Sarcastic Comments.

                                                                            

   

Question Like Sentences (3) - 44

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

              Question like statements

                                                                                                                                          

In this session we shall see the sentences that appear as questions but may or may not have answers.  These sentences don’t have the standard questions format.

Generally the questions have the following format.

Is Jack a teacher? – ‘yes/no’ Question (Answer to this question is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’)

Who is Jack? – ‘wh’ question. (‘Wh’ question -  ‘wh’ question starts with ‘wh’ question word e.g. ‘when’, ‘what’, ‘why’ etc.)

More examples 

Does she visit the office every day? – ‘yes/no’ Question

Where does she visit everyday? – ‘Wh’ question

What is your ID number? 'Wh' Question

In English language  some sentences  start with 'wh' word, but may not  be questions. 

A. Exclamatory sentences

Generally exclamatory sentence starts with ‘wh’ question word, (What/how) the subject and auxiliary verb are not inverted as we saw in question making session. Exclamatory sentence ends with ‘!’ mark.

What a beautiful place it is! (What a beautiful place is it!)

How generous Mr. Gate is!

What a horrible site it is!

What a cute baby! (It is/was/were optional)

What a pleasant weather!

What a blunder to ignore the Government appeal!

What a pity to waste the precious resource!

B. Questions in Directed and  Reported Speech

What is a reported speech?

Reported speech is also know as indirect speech. Read the following,

Jack asked Jim, “ Where is the post office?” – Direct speech

Shane  hears the above words and reports the matter to her friend .Shane won’t repeat the exact words spoken by Jack, she will speak the following words to her friend.

Jack asked Jim, Where the post office was. – Indirect/Reported speech (is becomes was)

 NOTE: Where is the post office? in direct speech is a question.

            Where the post office was in reported speech is not a question 

More sentences (Reported Speech)

David asked his teacher, “Can I submit the record now?” - Direct

David asked his teacher, if he could submit the record then. (now becomes then, can becomes could) – Reported

 

She enquired “ What is the time now?” – Direct

She enquired what the time was then. – Reported

 

Bill asked Joe, “Do you like to dine with me?” - Direct

Bill asked Joe whether/if he like to dine with him. ( Me  becomes him) – Reported

 

The Policeman asked Shane, “May I help you?” - Direct

The policeman asked Shane whether/if he might help her (You become her, may becomes might) - Reported

The following  ‘wh’ questions play the role of suggestions (negative or positive bias)

Why stop him now? (Let him continue.)

Why  be dejected and depressed? (Come on dude  relax.)

Why give your rivals an opportunity? (Beware of them.)

Why are you going mad after her? (There are so many girls in the town.)

How will the new government bridge the budget deficit without taxing the rich?

C. The following  ‘wh’ questions play the role of suggestions (negative or positive bias)

Why stop him now? (Let him continue.)

Why  be dejected and depressed? Come on dude  relax.

Why give your rivals an opportunity? Beware of them.

Why are you going mad about her? There are so many girls in the town.

How will the new government bridge the budget deficit without taxing the rich?

Note: The above questions may or may not elicit answers, (Answering or not answering, depends upon the context of the speech.)

   

             

Question making(2) - 43

                                                                                                                                                                          

        Questioning Techniques -2

                                                                     

Question making is quite different from making statements. Statements that provoke response from the hearer are called a question.  In formal English there are standard structures to frame questions, however in informal ways body language and expressions pay a vital role in creating a question mood.  A simple statement can be converted into question by rising intonation ( e.g. Obama won second term?,/ France lost AAA rating?)

KNOWLEDGE OF SUBJECT, VERB, AUXILIARY VERB ETC. IS ESSENTIAL FOR FRAMING QUESTIONS. Click grammarmail to know Subject , verb etc.

WHAT IS A SUBJECT?

Subject often describes the doer of an action, subject shows what  the sentence is about. All the nouns and pronouns can also be used as subjects. Subject  usually comes at the beginning of a sentence.

Jane gave a book to Jim (Jane = Subject)- Noun used as a subject

She gave a book to Jim (She = pronoun) – Pronoun used as a subject

SUBJECT PRONOUN

Person	Singular	Plural
First	I	We
Second	You	You
Third	He She It	They

                                          

What is a VERB ?

 Verb is a word that tells us   

1. What a person or thing does.e.g The man runs on the wall.

2. What is done to the person or thing e.g She was awarded a Nobel Prize

3. What a person or thing is. e.g she is a teacher

A. A Verb  or a main verb or an  action verb

The action verbs like read,see, watch  etc.are called an ordinary a verb or main verb.

They denote some action, they have present,past, past participle etc. forms (e.g go, went, gone etc.)

                      

                                     Auxiliary and modal auxiliary

A. Auxiliary verbs (helping verbs). These Verbs  are used with the main verbs  to form Tenses, passive forms,negatives and questions. The three forms of Auxiliaries are,

be  forms   am, is, are, was, were,  shall/will. e.g I am a teacher

do forms   do, does, did, . e.g. Do you Speak French.

have forms  have, has, had. e.g. She has done the job.

 B. Modal verbs or Modals or Modal auxiliary:  These verbs are used before ordinary or main verbs  to denote certainty,uncertainly,necessity, permission possibility etc. The verbs are can, could, shall, should,may,might,will,would,must and ought, have to, used to, need,dare,

e.g.

She can speak English. (can is an auxiliary verb Speak is a main verb)

He has gone to school. (has is an auxiliary verb, gone is a main verb.)

It will rain now. (will is an auxiliary verb, rain is a main verb.) - Rain is used as a verb here.

She is a doctor.  (is is an auxiliary verb acting as a main verb, because there isn't any main verb here.)

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

The two important  types of questions in English are ' wh' question and 'yes/no'  question. In this session we shall see  'wh' type.

 'Wh' question begins with  'wh' word  like what, when,where etc. ''Wh' question requires a complete response. e.g. Where is John// How is Shane?

'Yes/No' type - The response to this type of question is either 'yes' or 'no' , a complete response is not required in this case. e.g. Are you tired? ,  Does she work in a bank?

Note:  Subject  ------->    Auxiliary Verb (For Making negatives/questions.)

        I/We/you/they           Do --> Present , Did --> Past

        He/she/it                    Does --> Present, Did -->Past

'wh' questions model

What’s the time now? -  Question

Who is waiting for me? – Question

What soft of movies do you like?- Question

'Wh' Question depends on the target (The thing that the poser of a question would like to know.). Look at the following statement.

Jack bought an diamond ring for his wife this Christmas/ (or) Jack bought his wife a gift for christmas.- statement.

A. If the target is wife the question will be

For whom did Jack bought a diamond ring? – Formal question.

Who did Jack buy a diamond ring for?– casual/informal question.

B. If the target is diamond ring the question will be

What ring did Jack buy his wife for Christmas?

MAKING QUESTIONS WITH THE AUXILIARY VERBS (be forms) IN THE STATEMENT

The girl is slim. – statement

Target – slim - What is she like? (or) How is she?

Target – girl -   Who is slim?

Clara is from New York - Statement

 Where is she from? – Target = Clara

Who is from New York?   Target = New York.

John is 21 years old - Statement

 How old is John? – Target = 21 years.

Who is 21 years old  Target = John.

 Note: In the above examples we have used the auxiliary verb ‘is’ .

MAKING QUESTIONS WITH THE AUXILIARY VERBS ( do forms) IN HE STATEMENT

 Jim went to England last year? - Statement

Where did Jim go last year? – Target = England  (DId + go = went)

When did Jim go to England?  Target = last year

Who went to English last year?  Target = Jim. ( Auxiliary verb form not required here.)

NOTE: Did + go = went

He looked tall.- Statement

What did he look like?/ How did he look?  Target = tall

Who looked tall? Target = he.

The Secretary of state rushed to Moscow by air this evening to meet the Russia President. - Statement 

Who rushed to Moscow?  Target = Secretary of state.

How did he/she go to Moscow? Target = air (airplane)

Where did secretary of state go this evening?  Target = Moscow

When did secretary of state left for Moscow? Target = evening. (left is preferred to go.)

Why did the secretary of state go to Moscow? Target = the purpose - to meet the Russian President.

Who did the Secretary of state want to meet? Target = The President.

MORE QUESTONS

He takes medicine three times a day – Statement

How often does he take medicine?- question

She paid 200 Dollars - Statement

How much did she pay? - Question

The  Everest peak  is about 8000 meters high. - Statement

How high is the Everest peak? Question

Honesty is the best policy. –Statement

What policy is the best one? – Question

Multiple ‘wh’ word question.

When and where did she go?

Who did you approach for help and why?

 Note:

Normally which is used in ‘wh’ question with choice .

Which book is your? This or that.

Which road to take? This or that.

Which university did you join - MIT, Oxford or Cambridge