5W1H Question, Yes/No Question, & Questions Tags

Question Words (5W 1H)

The most common question words in English are the following:

WHO

WHO is only used when referring to people. (= I want to know the person)

Who is the best football player in the world?

Who are your best friends?

Who is that strange guy over there?

WHERE

WHERE is used when referring to a place or location. (= I want to know the place)

Where is the library?

Where do you live?

Where are my shoes?

WHEN

WHEN is used to refer to a time or an occasion. (= I want to know the time)

When do the shops open?

When is his birthday?

When are we going to finish?

WHY

WHY is used to obtain an explanation or a reason. (= I want to know the reason)

Why do we need a nanny?

Why are they always late?

Why does he complain all the time?

Normally the response begins with "Because..."

WHAT

WHAT is used to refer to specific information. (= I want to know the thing)

What is your name?

What is her favourite colour?

What is the time?

WHICH

WHICH is used when a choice needs to be made. (= I want to know the thing between alternatives)

Which drink did you order – the rum or the beer?

Which day do you prefer for a meeting – today or tomorrow?

Which is better - this one or that one?

HOW

HOW is used to describe the manner that something is done. (= I want to know the way)

How do you cook paella?

How does he know the answer?

How can I learn English quickly?

With HOW there are a number of other expressions that are used in questions:

How much – refers to a quantity or a price (uncountable nouns)

How much time do you have to finish the test?

How much is the jacket on display in the window?

How much money will I need?

How many – refers to a quantity (countable nouns)

How many days are there in April?

How many people live in this city?

How many brothers and sister do you have?

How often – refers to frequency

How often do you visit your grandmother?

How often does she study?

How often are you sick?

How far – refers to distance

How far is the university from your house?

How far is the bus stop from here?

Yes/No Question

The answers for simple questions in English are “Yes,”,”No,” or “I don’t know” (or its equivalent). The answers for information questions are varied–because they are used to ask about specific kinds of information.

There are 2 types of interrogative sentence in English (question words), namely:

1. The WH question words
2. Yes or no questions

Yes-no question can be made by changing the declarative sentence (statement). You have to know which one subject, the main verb (not followed by any verb), and helping / auxiliary verb (primary auxiliary verb / capital). Brief explanation is as follows.
Examples and Observations:
Homer: Are you an angel?
Moe    : Yes, Homer. All us angels wear Farrah slacks.
(The Simpsons)

“Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ What else do you do? Nothing. ‘Maestro, should this be red?’ Yes. ‘Green?’ No. ‘More extras?’ Yes. ‘More lipstick?’ No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That’s directing.” (Judi Dench as Liliane La Fleur in Nine, 2009).
Principal McGee: Are you just going to stand there all day?
Sonny: No ma’am. I mean, yes ma’am. I mean, no ma’am.
Principal McGee: Well, which is it?
Sonny: Um, no ma’am.
(Eve Arden and Michael Tucci in Grease, 1978)

The yes-no question is found in three varieties: the inverted question, the typical exemplar of this kind; the inverted question offering an alternative (which may require more than a simple yes or no for an answer); and the tag question:
Are you going? (inversion)
Are you staying or going? (inversion with alternative)
You’re going, aren’t you? (tag)

Question Tags

Question tags are short questions at the end of statements.

They are mainly used in speech when we want to:

confirm that something is true or not, or

to encourage a reply from the person we are speaking to.

Question tags are formed with the auxiliary or modal verb from the statement and the appropriate subject.

A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.

Jack is from Spain, isn't he?

Mary can speak English, can't she?

A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.

They aren't funny, are they?

He shouldn't say things like that, should he?

When the verb in the main sentence is in the present simple we form the question tag with do / does.

You play the guitar, don't you?

Alison likes tennis, doesn't she?

If the verb is in the past simple we use did.

They went to the cinema, didn't they?

She studied in New Zealand, didn't she?

When the statement contains a word with a negative meaning, the question tag needs to be positive

He hardly ever speaks, does he?

They rarely eat in restaurants, do they?