Language: text structure and punctuation
Asking questions
Turn a statement into a question, put the words in the right order, and choose the question word that asks for what you want to know.
A question is not just a statement with a question mark stuck on the end. The words move. "They have finished" becomes "Have they finished?" — the helping verb jumps in front of the subject, and that swap is what makes it a question before you have written a single mark of punctuation.
Two kinds of question
A yes/no question can be answered with yes or no: Is the door locked? Have they left? A question-word question asks for something more: Who took the ladder? When does the shop shut?
The question words
Who asks about a person. What asks about a thing. When asks about a time. Where asks about a place. Why asks for a reason. How asks about a way of doing something — and How many asks about a number.
When there is no helping verb
"She likes mangoes" has no helper to move, so one is borrowed: do, does or did. Does the bus stop here? Did they reach the station? Notice what happens to the main verb — it goes back to its plain form. Not "Does the bus stops", not "Did they reached".
Worked example
Turn "The letter arrived on Tuesday" into a question asking for the time.
There is no helping verb, and "arrived" is in the past, so borrow "did".
Did is the past-tense helper. It is the word that will carry the tense from here on.
Try it together
Build a question from "Meera found the keys in the garden".
You want to know where she found them. Three steps.
1.Which question word asks about a place?
Have a go
Which question is written correctly?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.