Questions
English questions run on one engine: put an auxiliary verb before the subject. If there's no auxiliary, you bring in do — the same do-support as negation. You cannot make a question with intonation and word order alone the way French, Spanish and Italian can.
Yes/no questions: invert the auxiliary
| statement | question |
|---|---|
| She is here. | Is she here? |
| They have finished. | Have they finished? |
| He can swim. | Can he swim? |
| You will come. | Will you come? |
No auxiliary? Bring in do
| statement | question |
|---|---|
| You speak French. | Do you speak French? |
| She likes tea. | Does she like tea? |
| They went home. | Did they go home? |
As with negation, tense and -s move onto do and the main verb goes back to base form.
✗ Speak you French? · ✗ Does she likes tea? · ✗ You like tea? (only works as an echo of surprise) · ✗ Did he went?
Romance speakers: ¿Vienes? / Tu viens ? with rising intonation must become Are you coming? or Do you want…? — the auxiliary is not optional.
Question words
| word | asks about | example |
|---|---|---|
| what | thing | What do you want? |
| which | thing, from a known set | Which one is yours? |
| who | person | Who did you see? |
| whose | possession | Whose bag is this? |
| where | place | Where do you live? |
| when | time | When does it start? |
| why | reason | Why did she leave? |
| how | manner | How does it work? |
| how much / many | quantity | How much is it? How many people came? |
| how long / often / far / old | duration, frequency, distance, age | How old are you? (not ✗ How many years have you?) |
Pattern: question word + auxiliary + subject + verb: Where does she live?
Subject questions: no do
When who/what is the subject, there is nothing to invert — no do-support:
| subject question | object question |
|---|---|
| Who called you? (someone called) | Who did you call? (you called someone) |
| What happened? | What did you do? |
Prepositions go to the end
Who are you talking to? What is it made of? Where do you come from? — Formal To whom… exists but sounds stiff. Do not import D'où viens-tu ? word order.
Indirect questions: NO inversion
After I wonder, do you know, can you tell me…, word order flips back to a plain statement:
| direct | indirect |
|---|---|
| Where does he live? | I don't know where he lives. |
| What time is it? | Can you tell me what time it is? |
✗ I don't know where does he live.
Question tags
Statement + comma + mini-question with opposite polarity, matching the auxiliary:
- You're French, aren't you? · She doesn't drive, does she? · They can come, can't they? · I'm late, aren't I? (irregular)
Where French says n'est-ce pas ? and German oder? for everything, English rebuilds the tag from the sentence's own auxiliary each time.
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