As you know, there are two kinds of questions in English , Yes / No Questions and Information Questions ( Wh- questions) .
Asking a Yes/No question is simple when compared to asking a Wh- question . In this post, I am going to discuss how Yes/No questions are framed in English .
Well, what is a Yes/ No question? It is a question which requires yes or no as answer .The basic structure of all Yes/No questions is the same . It can be expressed as follows:
auxiliary +subject+ main verb+ (complement)+(object)+(adverbial).
The items given in round brackets are optional . You need use them only if the context requires them . Their order, however, should not be disturbed!
I am giving below a few examples of Yes/No questions .
1 Are you a student?
Aux+subject+complement.
2 Has she finished her job?
aux+subject+verb+object
3 Have you sent her the e-mail?
aux+subject+verb+indirect object+ direct object
4 Did you see her yesterday?
dummy aux+subject +verb+object+ adverbial
5 Can she speak French?
modal aux+subject+verb+object
6 Shall I help you?
modal aux +subject+verb+object
7 Did you see her off at the airport yesterday?
dummy aux+subject+verb+object + particle+adverbial of place + adverbial of time
8 Need I accompany her to the airport?
modal aux+ subject+ verb+object+adverbial
9 Shall I make you some tea ?
modal aux+ subject +verb+ indirect object+ direct object
10 Have you had your lunch?
aux+ subject+verb+object
If you take a closer look at these examples , you will notice the following points:
1 The auxiliaries are primary auxiliaries like have, be or do , or they may be modal auxiliaries like shall, will, can need etc
2 The tense of the questions is determined by the tense of the first auxiliary
3 When the question makes use of simple present or simple past tense , the auxiliary is do, does or did . They are called dummy auxiliaries. These tenses have no auxiliaries in their verb- forms .
4 When be is the main verb in a question, it does the job of both the auxiliary and the main verb .
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A REQUEST TO READERS
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Thank you!
Monday, March 22, 2010
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thank you sir!you have solved my problem.
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