What kind of a word is yes

Yes is an interjection. This is the last part of speech. Yes means acceptance or Okay to something.

Can Yes be used as an interjection?

Interjections stand alone and are not usually part of a true sentence. An interjection can express “Surprise, joy, excitement, enthusiasm or disgust.” Any word in the English language can be used as an interjection. “Yes” is one of the most commonly used words in the English language.

What type of interjection is yes?

adverb

What does Yippee stand for?

Youth International Party
Leader	None (Pigasus used as a symbolic leader)
Founded	December 31, 1967 (as Yippies)
Headquarters	New York City
Newspaper	The Yipster Times Youth International Party Line Overthrow

Who said Yippee-Ki-Yay first?

John McClane is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Die Hard film series, based on Roderick Thorp’s action novel Nothing Lasts Forever. McClane was portrayed in all five films by actor Bruce Willis, and is known for his sardonic one-liners, including the famous catchphrase “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker”.

Who invented Yippee?

It was originally developed and released by Vivísimo in 2004 under the name Clusty, before Vivisimo was later acquired by IBM and Yippy was sold in 2010 to a company now called Yippy, Inc.

Is Maggi made of pig?

MAGGI® Noodles manufactured in India do not contain pig fat/pork. Except for the MAGGI® Chicken Noodles, which is the only non-vegetarian variant available under the MAGGI® 2-Minute Noodles line, all other variants are completely vegetarian.

Who is the CEO of yippee?

Mike Delves

Which is better Maggie or Yippee?

Yippee is longer while it cooked but Maggi breaks down mostly decreases its size. At last, Yippee can be seen as better competitor to Maggi. Yippee invades its growth in market rapidly when Maggi was banned in India but Maggi tops market with a 70% share of market in India.

Is it OK to eat Maggi once a week?

The heart wants what it wants, there’s no stopping you from really getting your maggi. If you’re a hopeless addict but you care about your health, once or twice a month is relatively okay, but once or more a week is a recipe for disaster.

Why was Maggi banned?

THE MAGGI NOODLES CRISIS IN INDIA It was in 2014 when food safety regulators from the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh reported that samples of Maggi Noodles had high levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG) apart from high lead content above the permissible level.

What happens if you eat Maggi everyday?

Excess consumption of MSG promotes sluggishness in the body. It may also cause headache, nausea, increased thirst and a twitching sensation in the mouth. In some cases one may feel numbness, skin rashes and excessive sweating too.

Is Maggi safe to eat 2020?

The food safety regulator FSSAI had banned Maggi noodles after it found excess level of lead in samples, terming it as “unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption.

Is Maggi really harmful?

Maggi is made up of refined flour or maida, which is not easily digested. Also, it contains preservatives, which are unhealthy and is high in sodium, which is a common risk factor of high blood pressure. 10. In fact, it is high in carbohydrate (refined flour), which is not good for health if consumed regularly.

Does Maggi increase weight?

Some studies have linked extremely high MSG consumption to weight gain and even increased blood pressure, headaches and nausea ( 13 , 14 ). However, other studies have found no association between weight and MSG when people consume it in moderate amounts ( 15 ).

Is Maggi a junk food?

Here are some foods mentioned which many of us might consider healthy but actually are unhealthy foods. 1. Instant noodles Maggi/ noodles hardly take any time to cook and taste good but all you are adding to your body is refined flour.

Can we eat Maggi in dieting?

However, according to recent news about the very popular instant noodles brand Nestle Maggi, it may be time to ditch these instant noodles from your diet. They may be the ultimate comfort food, but nothing comes in way of your health and well-being in the long term.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

Yes and no, or word pairs with similar words, are expressions of the affirmative and the negative, respectively, in several languages, including English. Some languages make a distinction between answers to affirmative versus negative questions and may have three-form or four-form systems. English originally used a four-form system up to and including Early Middle English and Modern English has reduced to a two-form system consisting of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. It exists in many facets of communication, such as: eye blink communication, head movements, Morse Code, and sign language. Some languages, such as Latin, do not have yes-no word systems.

Answering yes/no question with single words meaning ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is by no means universal. Probably about half the world’s languages typically employ an echo response: repeating the verb in the question in an affirmative or a negative form. Some of these also have optional words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’, like Hungarian, Russian, and Portuguese. Others simply don’t have designated yes/no words, like Welsh, Irish, Latin, Thai, and Chinese.^[1] Echo responses avoid the issue of what an unadorned yes means in response to a negative question. Yes and no can be used as a response to a variety of situations – but are better suited when asked simple questions. While a yes response to the question, «You don’t like strawberries?» is ambiguous in English, the Welsh response ydw (I am) has no ambiguity.

The words yes and no are not easily classified into any of the eight conventional parts of speech. Sometimes they are classified as interjections, although they do not qualify as such,^{[fact or opinion?]} and they are not adverbs. They are sometimes classified as a part of speech in their own right, sentence words, or pro-sentences, although that category contains more than yes and no, and not all linguists include them in their lists of sentence words. Sentences consisting solely of one of these two words are classified as minor sentences.

Classification of English grammar[edit]

Although sometimes classified as interjections, these words do not express emotion or act as calls for attention; they are not adverbs because they do not qualify any verb, adjective, or adverb. They are sometimes classified as a part of speech in their own right: sentence words or word sentences.^[2][3][4]

This is the position of Otto Jespersen, who states that «‘Yes’ and ‘No’ … are to all intents and purposes sentences just as much as the most delicately balanced sentences ever uttered by Demosthenes or penned by Samuel Johnson.»^[5]

Georg von der Gabelentz, Henry Sweet, and Philipp Wegener have all written on the subject of sentence words. Both Sweet and Wegener include yes and no in this category, with Sweet treating them separately from both imperatives and interjections, although Gabelentz does not.^[6]

Watts^[7] classifies yes and no as grammatical particles, in particular response particles. He also notes their relationship to the interjections oh and ah, which is that the interjections can precede yes and no but not follow them. Oh as an interjection expresses surprise, but in the combined forms oh yes and oh no merely acts as an intensifier; but ah in the combined forms ah yes and ah no retains its stand-alone meaning, of focusing upon the previous speaker’s or writer’s last statement. The forms *yes oh, *yes ah, *no oh, and *no ah are grammatically ill-formed. Aijmer^[8] similarly categorizes the yes and no as response signals or reaction signals.

Ameka classifies these two words in different ways according to the context. When used as back-channel items, he classifies them as interjections; but when they are used as the responses to a yes–no question, he classifies them as formulaic words. The distinction between an interjection and a formula is, in Ameka’s view, that the former does not have an addressee (although it may be directed at a person), whereas the latter does. The yes or no in response to the question is addressed at the interrogator, whereas yes or no used as a back-channel item is a feedback usage, an utterance that is said to oneself. However, Sorjonen criticizes this analysis as lacking empirical work on the other usages of these words, in addition to interjections and feedback uses.^[9]

Bloomfield and Hockett classify the words, when used to answer yes-no questions, as special completive interjections. They classify sentences comprising solely one of these two words as minor sentences.^[3]

Sweet classifies the words in several ways. They are sentence-modifying adverbs, adverbs that act as modifiers to an entire sentence. They are also sentence words, when standing alone. They may, as question responses, also be absolute forms that correspond to what would otherwise be the not in a negated echo response. For example, a «No.» in response to the question «Is he here?» is equivalent to the echo response «He is not here.» Sweet observes that there is no correspondence with a simple yes in the latter situation, although the sentence-word «Certainly.» provides an absolute form of an emphatic echo response «He is certainly here.» Many other adverbs can also be used as sentence words in this way.^[10]

Unlike yes, no can also be an adverb of degree, applying to adjectives solely in the comparative (e.g., no greater, no sooner, but not no soon or no soonest), and an adjective when applied to nouns (e.g., «He is no fool.» and Dyer’s «No clouds, no vapours intervene.»).^[10][11]

Grammarians of other languages have created further, similar, special classifications for these types of words. Tesnière classifies the French oui and non as phrasillons logiques (along with voici). Fonagy observes that such a classification may be partly justified for the former two, but suggests that pragmatic holophrases is more appropriate.^[12]

The Early English four-form system[edit]

While Modern English has a two-form system of yes and no for affirmatives and negatives, earlier forms of English had a four-form system, comprising the words yea, nay, yes, and no. Yes contradicts a negatively formulated question, No affirms it; Yea affirms a positively formulated question, Nay contradicts it.

• Will they not go? — Yes, they will.
• Will they not go? — No, they will not.
• Will they go? — Yea, they will.
• Will they go? — Nay, they will not.

This is illustrated by the following passage from Much Ado about Nothing:^[13]

Claudio: Can the world buie such a iewell? [buy such a jewel]
Benedick: Yea, and a case to put it into, but speake you this with a sad brow?

Benedick’s answer of yea is a correct application of the rule, but as observed by W. A. Wright «Shakespeare does not always observe this rule, and even in the earliest times the usage appears not to have been consistent.» Furness gives as an example the following, where Hermia’s answer should, in following the rule, have been yes:^[13][14]

Demetrius: Do not you thinke, The Duke was heere, and bid vs follow him?
Hermia: Yea, and my Father.

This subtle grammatical feature of Early Modern English is recorded by Sir Thomas More in his critique of William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament into Early Modern English, which was then quoted as an authority by later scholars:^[13]

I would not here note by the way that Tyndale here translateth no for nay, for it is but a trifle and mistaking of the Englishe worde : saving that ye shoulde see that he whych in two so plain Englishe wordes, and so common as in naye and no can not tell when he should take the one and when the tother, is not for translating into Englishe a man very mete. For the use of these two wordes in aunswering a question is this. No aunswereth the question framed by the affirmative. As for ensample if a manne should aske Tindall himselfe: ys an heretike meete to translate Holy Scripture into Englishe ? Lo to thys question if he will aunswere trew Englishe, he must aunswere nay and not no. But and if the question be asked hym thus lo: is not an heretike mete to translate Holy Scripture into Englishe ? To this question if he will aunswere trewe Englishe, he must aunswere no and not nay. And a lyke difference is there betwene these two adverbs ye and yes. For if the question bee framed unto Tindall by the affirmative in thys fashion. If an heretique falsely translate the New Testament into Englishe, to make his false heresyes seem the word of Godde, be his bokes worthy to be burned ? To this questyon asked in thys wyse, yf he will aunswere true Englishe, he must aunswere ye and not yes. But now if the question be asked him thus lo; by the negative. If an heretike falsely translate the Newe Testament into Englishe to make his false heresyee seme the word of God, be not hys bokes well worthy to be burned ? To thys question in thys fashion framed if he will aunswere trewe Englishe he may not aunswere ye but he must answere yes, and say yes marry be they, bothe the translation and the translatour, and al that wyll hold wyth them.

— Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer, pp. 430^[15][16]

In fact, More’s exemplification of the rule actually contradicts his statement of what the rule is. This went unnoticed by scholars such as Horne Tooke, Robert Gordon Latham, and Trench, and was first pointed out by George Perkins Marsh in his Century Dictionary, where he corrects More’s incorrect statement of the first rule, «No aunswereth the question framed by the affirmative.», to read nay. That even More got the rule wrong, even while himself dressing down Tyndale for getting it wrong, is seen by Furness as evidence that the four word system was «too subtle a distinction for practice».

Marsh found no evidence of a four-form system in Mœso-Gothic, although he reported finding «traces» in Old English. He observed that in the Anglo-Saxon Gospels,

• positively phrased questions are answered positively with gea (John 21:15,16, King James Version: «Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee» etc.)
• and negatively with ne (Luke 12:51, KJ: «Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division»; 13:4,5, KJ: «Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.»), nese (John 21:5 «Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.»; Matthew 13:28,29, KJ: «The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.»), and nic meaning «not I» (John 18:17, KJ: «Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man’s disciples? He saith, I am not.»);
• while negatively phrased questions are answered positively with gyse (Matthew 17:25, KJ: «they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes.»)
• and negatively for example with nâ, meaning «no one» (John 8:10,11, «he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord.»).^[14]

Marsh calls this four-form system of Early Modern English a «needless subtlety». Tooke called it a «ridiculous distinction», with Marsh concluding that Tooke believed Thomas More to have simply made this rule up and observing that Tooke is not alone in his disbelief of More. Marsh, however, points out (having himself analyzed the works of John Wycliffe, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Skelton, and Robert of Gloucester, and Piers Plowman and Le Morte d’Arthur) that the distinction both existed and was generally and fairly uniformly observed in Early Modern English from the time of Chaucer to the time of Tyndale. But after the time of Tyndale, the four-form system was rapidly replaced by the modern two-form system.^[14]

Three-form systems[edit]

Several languages have a three-form system, with two affirmative words and one negative. In a three-form system, the affirmative response to a positively phrased question is the unmarked affirmative, the affirmative response to a negatively phrased question is the marked affirmative, and the negative response to both forms of question is the (single) negative. For example, in Norwegian the affirmative answer to «Snakker du norsk?» («Do you speak Norwegian?») is «Ja», and the affirmative answer to «Snakker du ikke norsk?» («Do you not speak Norwegian?») is «Jo», while the negative answer to both questions is «Nei».^{[14][17][18][19][20]}

Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French and Malayalam all have three-form systems. Swedish and Danish have ja, jo, and nej. Norwegian has ja, jo/jau, and nei. Icelandic has já, jú, and nei. Faroese has ja, jú, and nei. Hungarian has igen, de, and nem. German has ja, doch, and nein. Dutch has ja, jawel, and nee. French has oui, si, and non. Malayalam has അതേ, ഉവ്വ് and ഇല്ല. Though, technically Malayalam is a multi-form system of Yes and No as can be seen from below, the former are the formal words for Yes and No.

Swedish, and to some extent Danish and Norwegian, also have additional forms javisst and jovisst, analogous to ja and jo, to indicate a strong affirmative response. Swedish (and Danish and Norwegian slang) also have the forms joho and nehej, which both indicate stronger response than jo or nej. Jo can also be used as an emphatic contradiction of a negative statement.^[18][21] And Malayalam has the additional forms അതേല്ലോ, ഉവ്വല്ലോ and ഇല്ലല്ലോ which act like question words, question tags or to strengthen the affirmative or negative response, indicating stronger meaning than അതേ, ഉവ്വ് and ഇല്ല. The words അല്ലേ, ആണല്ലോ, അല്ലല്ലോ, വേണല്ലോ, വേണ്ടല്ലോ, ഉണ്ടല്ലോ and ഇല്ലേ work in the same ways. These words also sound more polite as they don’t sound like curt when saying «No!» or «Yes!». ഉണ്ട means «it is there» and the word behaves as an affirmative response like അതേ. The usage of ഏയ് to simply mean «No» or «No way!», is informal and may be casual or sarcastic, while അല്ല is the more formal way of saying «false», «incorrect» or that «it is not» and is a negative response for questions. The word അല്ലല്ല has a stronger meaning than അല്ല. ശരി is used to mean «OK» or «correct», with the opposite ശരിയല്ല meaning «not OK» or «not correct». It is used to answer affirmatively to questions to confirm any action by the asker, but to answer negatively one says വേണ്ടാ. വേണം and വേണ്ട both mean to «want» and to «not want».

Other languages with four-form systems[edit]

Like Early Modern English, the Romanian language has a four-form system. The affirmative and negative responses to positively phrased questions are da and nu, respectively. But in responses to negatively phrased questions they are prefixed with ba (i.e. ba da and ba nu). nu is also used as a negation adverb, infixed between subject and verb. Thus, for example, the affirmative response to the negatively phrased question «N-ai plătit?» («Didn’t you pay?») is «Ba da.» («Yes.»—i.e. «I did pay.»), and the negative response to a positively phrased question beginning «Se poate să …?» («Is it possible to …?») is «Nu, nu se poate.» («No, it is not possible.»—note the use of nu for both no and negation of the verb.)^[22][23][24]

Related words in other languages and translation problems[edit]

Bloomfield and Hockett observe that not all languages have special completive interjections.

Finnish[edit]

Finnish does not generally answer yes-no questions with either adverbs or interjections but answers them with a repetition of the verb in the question,^[25] negating it if the answer is the negative. (This is an echo response.) The answer to «Tuletteko kaupungista?» («Are you coming from town?») is the verb form itself, «Tulemme.» («We are coming.») However, in spoken Finnish, a simple «Yes» answer is somewhat more common, «Joo.»

Negative questions are answered similarly. Negative answers are just the negated verb form. The answer to «Tunnetteko herra Lehdon?» («Do you know Mr Lehto?») is «En tunne.» («I don’t know.») or simply «En.» («I don’t.»).^{[3][26][27][28]} However, Finnish also has particle words for «yes»: «Kyllä» (formal) and «joo» (colloquial). A yes-no question can be answered «yes» with either «kyllä» or «joo«, which are not conjugated according to the person and plurality of the verb. «Ei«, however, is always conjugated and means «no».

Estonian[edit]

Estonian has a structure similar to Finnish, with both repetitions and interjections. Jah means «yes». Unlike Finnish, the negation particle is always ei, regardless of person and plurality. Ei ole («am/are/is not») can be replaced by pole (a contraction of the ancient expression ep ole, meaning the same).

The word küll, cognate to Finnish kyllä, can be used to reply positively to a negative question: «Kas sa ei räägi soome keelt?» «Räägin küll!» («You don’t speak Finnish?» «Yes, I do!») It can also be used to approve a positive statement: «Sa tulidki kaasa!» «Tulin küll.» («You (unexpectedly) came along!» «Yes I did.»)

Latvian[edit]

Up until the 16th century Latvian did not have a word for «yes» and the common way of responding affirmatively to a question was by repeating the question’s verb, just as in Finnish. The modern day jā was borrowed from Middle High German ja and first appeared in 16th-century religious texts, especially catechisms, in answers to questions about faith. At that time such works were usually translated from German by non-Latvians that had learned Latvian as a foreign language. By the 17th century, jā was being used by some Latvian speakers that lived near the cities, and more frequently when speaking to non-Latvians, but they would revert to agreeing by repeating the question verb when talking among themselves. By the 18th century the use of jā was still of low frequency, and in Northern Vidzeme the word was almost non-existent until the 18th and early 19th century. Only in the mid-19th century did jā really become usual everywhere.^[29]

Welsh[edit]

It is often assumed that Welsh has no words at all for yes and no. It has ie and nage, and do and naddo. However, these are used only in specialized circumstances and are some of the many ways in Welsh of saying yes or no. Ie and nage are used to respond to sentences of simple identification, while do and naddo are used to respond to questions specifically in the past tense. As in Finnish, the main way to state yes or no, in answer to yes-no questions, is to echo the verb of the question. The answers to «Ydy Ffred yn dod?» («Is Ffred coming?») are either «Ydy» («He is (coming).») or «Nac ydy» («He is not (coming)»). In general, the negative answer is the positive answer combined with nag. For more information on yes and no answers to yes-no questions in Welsh, see Jones, listed in further reading.^[28][30][31]

Goidelic languages[edit]

The Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx) do not have words for yes or no at all. Instead, an echo response of the main verb used to ask the question is used. Sometimes, one of the words meaning «to be» (Irish tá or is, see Irish syntax § The forms meaning «to be»; Scottish Gaelic tha or is see Scottish Gaelic grammar § verbs; Manx ta or is) is used. For example, the Irish question «An bhfuil sé ag teacht?» («Is he coming?») may be answered «Tá« («Is») or «Níl« («Is not»). More frequently, another verb will be used. For example, to respond to «Ar chuala sé?» («Did he hear?»), «Chuala» («Heard») or «Níor chuala» («Did not hear») are used. Irish people frequently give echo answers in English as well, e.g. «Did you hear?» Answer «I heard/I did».

Latin[edit]

Latin has no single words for yes and no. Their functions as word sentence responses to yes-no questions are taken up by sentence adverbs, single adverbs that are sentence modifiers and also used as word sentences. There are several such adverbs classed as truth-value adverbs—including certe, fortasse, nimirum, plane, vero, etiam, sane, videlicet, and minime (negative). They express the speaker’s/writer’s feelings about the truth value of a proposition. They, in conjunction with the negator non, are used as responses to yes-no questions.^{[3][32][33][34][35]} For example:

«Quid enim diceres? Damnatum? Certe non.» («For what could you say? That I had been condemned? Assuredly not.»)

Latin also employs echo responses.^[34][36]

Galician and Portuguese[edit]

These languages have words for yes and no, namely si and non in Galician and sim and não in Portuguese. However, answering a question with them is less idiomatic than answering with the verb in the proper conjugation.

Spanish[edit]

In Spanish, the words sí ‘yes’ and no ‘no’ are unambiguously classified as adverbs: serving as answers to questions and also modifying verbs. The affirmative sí can replace the verb after a negation (Yo no tengo coche, pero él sí = I don’t own a car, but he does) or intensify it (I don’t believe he owns a car. / He does own one! = No creo que él tenga coche. / ¡Sí lo tiene!). The word no is the standard adverb placed next to a verb to negate it (Yo no tengo coche = I don’t own a car). Double negation is normal and valid in Spanish, and it is interpreted as reinforcing the negation (No tengo ningún coche = I own no car).

Chinese[edit]

Speakers of Chinese use echo responses.^[37] In all Sinitic/Chinese languages, yes-no questions are often posed in A-not-A form, and the replies to such questions are echo answers that echo either A or not A.^[38][39] In Standard Mandarin Chinese, the closest equivalents to yes and no are to state «是» (shì; lit. ‘»is»‘) and «不是» (búshì; lit. ‘»not is»‘).^[40][41] The phrase 不要 (búyào; ‘(I) do not want’) may also be used for the interjection «no», and 嗯 (ǹg) may be used for «yes». Similarly, in Cantonese, the preceding are 係 hai6 (lit: «is») and 唔係 (lit: «not is») m4 hai6, respectively. One can also answer 冇錯 mou5 co3 (lit. ‘»not wrong»‘) for the affirmative, although there is no corresponding negative to this.

Japanese[edit]

Japanese lacks words for yes and no. The words «はい» (hai) and «いいえ» (iie) are mistaken by English speakers for equivalents to yes and no, but they actually signify agreement or disagreement with the proposition put by the question: «That’s right.» or «That’s not right.»^[37][42] For example: if asked, Are you not going? (行かないのですか?, ikanai no desu ka?), answering with the affirmative «はい» would mean «Right, I am not going»; whereas in English, answering «yes» would be to contradict the negative question. Echo responses are not uncommon in Japanese.

Complications[edit]

These differences between languages make translation difficult. No two languages are isomorphic at the most elementary level of words for yes and no. Translation from two-form to three-form systems are equivalent to what English-speaking school children learning French or German encounter. The mapping becomes complex when converting two-form to three-form systems. There are many idioms, such as reduplication (in French, German, and Italian) of affirmatives for emphasis (the German ja ja ja).

The mappings are one-to-many in both directions. The German ja has no fewer than 13 English equivalents that vary according to context and usage (yes, yeah, and no when used as an answer; well, all right, so, and now, when used for segmentation; oh, ah, uh, and eh when used an interjection; and do you, will you, and their various inflections when used as a marker for tag questions) for example. Moreover, both ja and doch are frequently used as additional particles for conveying nuanced meaning where, in English, no such particle exists. Straightforward, non-idiomatic, translations from German to English and then back to German can often result in the loss of all of the modal particles such as ja and doch from a text.^{[43][44][45][46]}

Translation from languages that have word systems to those that do not, such as Latin, is similarly problematic. As Calvert says, «Saying yes or no takes a little thought in Latin».^[35]

Colloquial forms[edit]

Non-verbal[edit]

Linguist James R. Hurford notes that in many English dialects «there are colloquial equivalents of Yes and No made with nasal sounds interrupted by a voiceless, breathy h-like interval (for Yes) or by a glottal stop (for No)» and that these interjections are transcribed into writing as uh-huh or mm-hmm.^[47] These forms are particularly useful for speakers who are at a given time unable to articulate the actual words yes and no.^[47] The use of short vocalizations like uh-huh, mm-hmm, and yeah are examples of non-verbal communication, and in particular the practice of backchanneling.^[48][49]

Art historian Robert Farris Thompson has posited that mm-hmm may be a loanword from a West African language that entered the English vernacular from the speech of enslaved Africans; linguist Lev Michael, however, says that this proposed origin is implausible, and linguist Roslyn Burns states that the origin of the term is difficult to confirm.^[50]

Aye and variants[edit]

The word aye () as a synonym for yes in response to a question dates to the 1570s. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it is of unknown origin. It may derive from the word I (in the context of «I assent»); as an alteration of the Middle English yai («yes»); or the adverb aye (meaning always «always, ever»), which comes from the Old Norse ei.^[51] Using aye to mean yes is archaic, having disappeared from most of the English-speaking world, but is notably still used by people from Scotland, Ulster, and the north of England.^[52]

In December 1993, a witness in a Scottish court who had answered «aye» to confirm he was the person summoned was told by a sheriff judge that he must answer either yes or no. When his name was read again and he was asked to confirm it, he answered «aye» again, and was imprisoned for 90 minutes for contempt of court. On his release he said, «I genuinely thought I was answering him.»^[53]

Aye is also a common word in parliamentary procedure, where the phrase the ayes have it means that a motion has passed.^[54] In the House of Commons of the British Parliament, MPs vote orally by saying «aye» or «no» to indicate they approve or disapprove of the measure or piece of legislation. (In the House of Lords, by contrast, members say «content» or «not content» when voting).^[55]

The term has also historically been used in nautical usage, often phrased as «aye, aye, sir» duplicating the word «aye».^[56] Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) explained that the nautical phrase was at that time usually written ay, ay, sir.^[54]

The informal, affirmative phrase why-aye (also rendered whey-aye or way-eye) is used in the dialect of northeast England,^[57][58] most notably by Geordies.^[58]

Other[edit]

Other variants of «yes» include acha in informal Indian English and historically righto or righty-ho in upper-class British English, although these fell out of use during the early 20th century.^[52]

See also[edit]

• Affirmation and negation
• Thumb signal
• Translation
• Untranslatability

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Bob Morris Jones (1999). The Welsh Answering System. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-016450-3.—Jones’ analysis of how to answer questions with «yes» or «no» in the Welsh language, broken down into a typology of echo and non-echo responsives, polarity and truth-value responses, and numbers of forms
• George L. Huttar (1994). «Words for ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘maybe’«. Ndyuka: A Descriptive Grammar. Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-415-05992-3.
• Holmberg, Anders (2016). The syntax of yes and no. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198701859.
• Kulick, Don (April 2003). «No». Language & Communication. Elsevier. 23 (2): 139–151. doi:10.1016/S0271-5309(02)00043-5. Pdf. Archived 2015-02-27 at the Wayback Machine

1. Nobody expected them to succeed but they did! — Никто не ожидал, что они добьются успеха, но они сделали это!
2. I haven’t passed my driving test for the ninth time. I feel like a complete failure. — Я не сдал экзамен по вождению в девятый раз. Я чувствую что это полный провал.
3. Losing your privacy is a price you have to pay for fame. — Потеря вашей частной жизни является ценой, которую вы должны заплатить за известность.
4. She successfully took her employers to court and won compensation. — Она успешно прошла суд с работодателями и выиграла компенсацию.
5. Your projects were excellent — you can all be very proud of your achievement. — Ваши проекты были отличные — все вы можете очень гордиться своим достижением.
6. You’re very talented, you know — you have an amazing ability to predict problems. — Вы очень талантливы, знаете ли, — у вас есть удивительная способность предсказывать проблемы.

Вопросительные слова в английском языке имеют широкое применение в составлении специальных вопросов и в английской речи в целом. Вопросительных слов и выражений в английском не так уж и много, но некоторые из них имеют характерные особенности, поэтому в этой теме стоит разобраться.

Что такое вопросительные слова

Вопросительные слова – Ques­tion Words – являются вопросительными местоимениями и наречиями. Они всегда находятся в самом начале вопроса перед вспомогательным глаголом. Также вопросительные слова на английском легко запомнить, так как практические все они начинаются с «wh» за исключением слова «How», поэтому их иногда называют еще Wh-Questions.

Таким образом вопросительные слова создают специальные вопросы (Spe­cial Ques­tions) – вопросы, которые задаются к определенному слову в предложении. В специальных вопросах действует обратный порядок слов, то есть сначала вспомогательный глагол, а после подлежащее. Однако при переходе в косвенную речь прямой порядок слов сохраняется.

Например:

• She said: «When did we leave Lon­don?». – She asked when we lived London.

Все вопросительные слова с переводом и примером употребления представлены в таблице ниже.

Ques­tion word	Trans­la­tion	Exam­ple
Вопросительные местоимения
Who	Кто?	Who plays video games?
What	Что? Какой?	What is your favourite colour?
Which	Который? Какой? Чей?	Which pants do you like?
Whose	Чей?	Whose is this phone?
Whom	Кому? Кого?	Whom did he meet?
Вопросительные наречия
Where	Где? Куда?	Where are you from?
When	Когда?	When will you come?
How	Как?	How did you do it?
Why	Почему?	Why do you run in the mornings?

Вопросительные фразы на английском

Кроме вопросительных слов в английском языке также существуют вопросительные фразы, то есть сочетание вопросительных слов с другими. Обычно это сочетания со словами «how», «what» и «who», но могут быть и другие. Они будут представлены в таблице ниже.

Ques­tion phrase	Trans­la­tion	Exam­ple
How long	Как долго?	How long have you lived in Spain?
How much/how many	Сколько?	How many birds do you see there?
How often	Как часто?	How often do you vis­it your grandparents?
How old	Сколько лет?	How old is her brother?
How tall	Какого роста?	How tall is this tree?
How deep	Как глубоко?	How deep is this pool?
How wide	Насколько широк?	How wide is this bed?
How fast	Как быстро?	How fast is that car?
How come	Как так?	How come she didn’t notice me?
How about	Как насчет?	How about a walk in the park tomorrow?
What kind of	Какой вид? Какие?	What kind of sport does he do?
What type of	Какой тип?	What type of films do you like?
What sort of	Какой? Какого типа/вида?	What sort of book do you prefer?
What time	Сколько времени?	What time was it when we arrived?
What colour	Какого цвета?	What colour is this T‑shirt?
What … for	Для чего?	What is this thing for?
What … about	О чем?	What is this poem about?
What … like	Как?	What does his new room look like?
What … like as	Что собой представляет как?	What is she like as a singer?
What … with	Чем?	What do you paint with? Pen­cils or paints?
What about	Как насчет?	What about pizza?
What of it	И что с того?	I didn’t so it on time and what of it?
What if	Что если?	What if we go out of town for the weekend.
Since what time	С какого времени?	Since what time do you live in London?
So what	Ну и что?	Yes, we don’t like watch­ing TV shows, so what?
Where … from	Откуда?	Where did you come from?
Who … with	С кем?	Who do you go to school with?
Who … by	Кем?	Who is direct­ed this film by?
Who … about	О ком?	Who do you think about?
Who … at	На кого?	Who are they look­ing at?
Who … from	От кого?	Who did you run away from?
Who … for	С кем?	Who are you going to study for?
Why don’t …	Почему бы не?	Why don’t we go jog­ging in the park?

Читайте также: как переводится и где используется last name

Особенности вопросительных слов

What

Вопросительное слово «What» в английском языке употребляется очень часто и в предложении может использоваться как подлежащее, дополнение или определение.

Например:

• What did you bring us? – Что ты нам принес?
• What is she doing here? – Что она здесь делает?
• What songs do you love the most? – Какие песни ты любишь больше всего?

What VS who

Чтобы узнать то, кем является человек по профессии. также нужно использовать вопрос «what», и ни в коем случае нельзя «who», так как этот вопрос относится к имени человека, его описанию или его качествам.

Например:

• What is your moth­er? – Кто твоя мама по профессии? (Кем работает твоя мама?)
• Who is your moth­er? – Кто твоя мама?
• What is that man? – Кем работает тот человек?
• Who is that man? – Кто тот человек?

What or which

Оба эти слова переводятся как «какой?» или «который», и они практически являются синонимами, но все же у них есть отличия. Они различны тем, что «which» используется в тех случаях, когда есть выбор из нескольких предметов или лиц, чаще всего из двух. Часто после слова «which» ставится предлог «of».

«What» употребляется тогда, когда речь идет о качестве предмета или в тех случаях, когда есть выбор из неограниченного количества предметов или лиц.

Например:

• Which per­fume do you pre­fer — del­i­cate or sweet? – Какие духи ты предпочитаешь – нежные или сладкие?
• Which of movies do you want to watch now? – Который фильм ты хочешь посмотреть сейчас?
• What is your favourite sort of dances? – Какой твой любимый вид танцев?

How much or how many

И «how much», и «how many» переводятся как «сколько», а отличается употребление much и many только тем, что «how much» используется с неисчисляемыми существительными, а «how many» – с исчисляемыми.

Например:

• How much milk do you need for a cake? – Сколько тебе нужно молока для торта?
• How much does a cin­e­ma tick­et cost? – Сколько стоит билет в кино?
• How many pic­tures do we have at home? – Сколько картин у нас дома?
• How many apple did you buy? – Сколько яблок ты купил?

Вопросительные слова в английском языке играют огромную роль в устной и письменной речи, а значит их употребление должно быть автоматизировано. При общении с собеседником специальных вопросов не избежать, поэтому знать вопросительные слова должен каждый говорящий на английском языке.

Special questions in English are as easy to learn as general questions. Especially if you are learning the topic after you learned the general questions.

It can also be said that the topic “special questions” is an addition to the topic “general questions”.

Remember to read How to learn English with audiobooks for FREE

Why do we need special questions?

Special questions are questions that we ask in order to get additional information. We ask a special question when a general question is not enough.

Because we ask general questions to get a yes or no answer:

Question: Jack do you have any friends?

We ask this question just to find out yes/no if John has friends:

Answer: Yes, I do.

But what if we want to find out more. If we need to know how many friends John has?

The words “how many” are additional question words. These words turn a general question into a special one.

How many friends do you have?

Or we can use even a longer phrase:

How many of your friends do you like?

These additional words or phrases are the difference between a special question and a general question.

Special questions in the English language may differ in length, but their structure is always the same.

Examples:

Where did you find this doctor?

Where will you go with your history?

What do you feel for me?

How do you even know he was driving?

Where will this bizarre man stay?

How to form Special questions in English

We put a question word or phrase at the beginning of the sentence. Then we put an auxiliary verb or a modal verb or the verb to be. Then we put the subject. We can then add the rest of the sentence if needed.

Examples:

Where did you get this information?

Why did you get this information?

When did you get this information?

From whom did you get this information?

For what did you get this information?

The scheme looks like this:

Question word or phrase (when, why, how much, where) + Auxiliary verb (do, will, did) or modal verb (can, should, may) or verb to be (am, were, are) + Subject (I, We, John, People) + main verb (read, work, go) + rest of the sentence if necessary.

What do you know about love?

How can you think of food now?

How to answers special questions

The answer to a special question may be short:

Question: When are you going to see your aunt?
Answer: Tomorrow.

Or long:

Question: When are you going to see your aunt?
Answer: I am going to see her tomorrow.

In any case, the main purpose of answering a special question is to provide the necessary information.

Look at the different options for special questions and answers.

Question: When are you going to tell him?
Answer: Tomorrow morning.

Question: How do I start screen sharing?
Answer: You should click the red button.

Question: When do you want to meet him?
Answer: I don’t want to meet him at all!

Question: Why are you pretending to laugh?
Answer: Because your joke isn’t funny.

Question: How do we drop five points?
Answer: We lost the game.

Question: Why does she need to leave town?
Answer: Because she needs to find a new job.

Question: When do you want me to leave?
Answer: Now!

Special Question to the subject

Remember that in a subject question, the word order remains the same as in an affirmative sentence.

In a special question to the subject, we put a question word in the place of the subject:

We made a big sand statue on the beach.

We -> Who +?

Who made a big sand statue on the beach?

Negative form of special questions

A negative special question is no different from a positive special question, except for the negative particle not, which we put after the subject.

Auxiliary verbs/modal verbs/the verb to be with a negative particle not are usually abbreviated (n’t):

is not – isn’t
are not – aren’t
was not – wasn’t
were not – weren’t
do not – don’t
does not – doesn’t
did not – didn’t
have not – haven’t
has not – hasn’t
will not – won’t
can not – can’t
must not – mustn’t
should not – shouldn’t

Examples of negative special questions:

Why doesn’t she ever want you to leave the house?

Why didn’t you send him money?

Where didn’t you see me?

Why doesn’t she like me?

Where can’t you find a relic robe?

Why didn’t you run after them?

Question words

Take a look at the most popular question words we use to form special questions:

• which
• what
• whose
• What kind of
• who
• whom
• where
• whither
• whence
• when
• how
• How often
• How much
• How many
• How old
• How long
• What about
• What for
• What kind

Take a look at examples of using some of these words:

Why.

Why have you come at this hour?

Why did you buy such a fast car?

Why have you never called her?

When.

When can I come to see your office?

When can I get my video?

When did young people become so confident?

How.

How do you survive?

How will I ever repay you?

How do you two gentlemen feel about comedy?

How old.

How old was the boy you babysat for?

How old are your children, Joe?

How old will you be next year?

How many.

How many of us will survive?

How many countries have elected women?

How much.

How much fun was that?

How much time do we have?

How much fuel does the tank contain?

How long.

How long have we played this game?

How long has he served you?

How often.

How often have you visited her?

How often have we heard it?

How often do you get a gift like that?

What.

What work can I do?

What book do you want to read?

What person is that, then?

What kind.

What kind of family is this?

What kind of charm is that?

What for.

What for do you want her back again?

What for do you object to live in the palace?

What about.

What do you think about everything you just said?

Whom.

Whom did you hand the material?

Whom are you calling “darling”?

Whom can I contact for help?

Whose.

Whose interest does this serve?

Whose idea was the home invasion?

Whose side is he taking?

Where.

Where do they get these numbers?

Where will you go in the heat?

Where do you spend your time?

Who instead of whom

Who is a very popular question word.

Note that in modern English we usually use who instead of whom. However, if we want to make the sentence more formal we can use whom.

Whom do I fire for this? = Who do I fire for this?

What and which

The words what and which are very similar in meaning. When and how to use them correctly?

We use what when we are choosing from a variety of items or objects. Or when we ask about things or concepts in a general sense, without having in mind the choice among a specific number of things or concepts.

What do you know about being a manager?

What person are you?

We use which when we select from a limited number of items or objects:

Look at those cars. Which car are we talking about?

It’s a late time. Which restaurant is still open?

What vs What kind of

What is the difference between the question word What and the phrase What kind of?

It seems that what and what kind of are very similar and interchangeable. But in fact, there is a slight difference between them:

We use What if we ask a question in order to get an answer about what kind of object it is.

What house is that over there?

What car did you have before?

We use what kind of when we ask a question to find out about the quality, properties, characteristics of an item or object.

What kind of work is it, exactly?

What kind of car do you say it was?

In English, there are several different types of questions (also known as interrogative sentences) that you can ask.

Each elicits a slightly different response and is structured in a certain way. In this article, we’ll go over the following types of interrogative structures:

• Yes-no questions
• Choice questions
• Wh-questions
• Question tags
• Indirect scrquestions
• Rhetorical questions

As we go over these, make sure to pay special attention to two things: word and intonation. These can be the hardest things to keep track of when asking questions in English.

1. YES-NO QUESTIONS

The simplest type of question in English is the yes-no question. Very simply, it’s a type of question that expects a YES or NO as a response (though not limited to that). Take a look at the following statement:

• It is going to be cold tomorrow.

Now, let’s change it into a yes-no question:

Is it going to be cold tomorrow?

There are two things to note here. One, which you can’t know simply by reading this on a screen, is that when asking this question, the speaker’s tone of voice rises at the end, as opposed to a normal falling pitch used during a declarative sentence.

The second is the change in the word. When a declarative sentence becomes a yes-no question, the subject and its corresponding auxiliary verb switch (in other words, they become inverted).

Therefore, IT IS denotes a declarative, while IS IT denotes a yes-no question. Here are some other examples of yes-no questions:

• Are you going to take the car today? (You’re going to take the car today.)
• Can you understand Cantonese? (You can understand Cantonese.)
• Would he mind switching seats with me? (He would mind switching seats with me.)
• Should I leave my things here while we’re gone? (I should leave my things here while we’re gone.)
• Will we be stopping by the gas station later? (We’ll be stopping by the gas station later.)

Now, look at the following question:

Do you speak English?

The corresponding declarative sentences for this is: YOU SPEAK ENGLISH. However, in a yes-no question, we need to add the verb TO DO because an inversion must occur between the subject and an auxiliary verb.

So, if you want to change YOU SPEAK ENGLISH into a question, you must first add the auxiliary TO DO (YOU DO SPEAK ENGLISH), and then make the inversion (DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?). It would sound weird for you to ask, SPEAK YOU ENGLISH? or YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

Here are more examples of yes-no questions with the added TO DO auxiliary:

• Do you like chocolate?
• Does everything make sense?
• Do I sound annoying when I talk?
• Did Julie just walk out of the room?

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2. NEGATIVE YES-NO QUESTIONS

Yes-no questions can also contain the word NOT, which would come after the subject in the question. For example:

Do you not have any money?

Answering this kind of question, however, can be tricky. In this situation, if you want to confirm that you have no money, you would say, NO. If you answered with a YES on the other hand, this will probably confuse the person who asked the question, and they will probably not know what you mean until you clarify your answer.

This may sound counterintuitive to many foreigners, and I find it to be a huge inconvenience of the English language.

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3. UNINVERTED YES-NO QUESTIONS

So far, inversions seem pretty crucial to yes-no questions (and most questions in English). There are however, yes-no questions where an inversion does not occur.

In this situation, Speaker A is asking a question not because he wants information, but because he is confirming something he just heard out of surprise. You could still respond to this type of question with a YES or a NO, but it’s not necessary, unless the speaker is trying to confirm that they heard something correctly.

For example, if you think you misheard a piece of information, you can restate it in the form of a question as a sign that you didn’t hear it very clearly.

A: What are you doing this summer?
B: I’m going to Brazil.
A: (Didn’t quite catch what B said) Wait, you’re going to Brazil?
B: Yeah.
A: Oh, that’s so cool!

This type of uninverted yes-no question can also come in the negative form.

A: I’m going to stop by Starbucks. Do you want anything?
B: No, I’m fine. I don’t like coffee.
A: Wait, you don’t like coffee? I can’t go a day without it!

4. CHOICE QUESTIONS

A type of question that builds off from the yes-no question structure is the choice question, which asks the other person to choose between two (or more) presented options. These options are connected using the conjunction OR.

• Do you like chocolate or vanilla better?
• Are you going to drive or do you want me to?
• Is it pronounced “care-uh-mel” or “car-mull”?

Another way to ask a choice question is to ask a wh-question followed by stating two or more options. We’ll get into more detail about wh-questions later.

• Which do you like better? Chocolate or vanilla?
• What do you prefer? That I drive or that you drive?
• Which way is it pronounced? “Care-uh-mel” or “car-mull”?

IS IT REALLY A CHOICE QUESTION?

Sometimes, a yes-no question that happens to contain an OR might be confused for a choice question. For example, pretend that the following is a conversation for text:

Here, Speaker A asked a yes-no question about whether speaker B wanted to bring one of his friends to dinner, but Speaker B confused it for a choice question. A clarification was therefore needed.

If you see a choice question on paper or through text, you can use context to help determine whether it’s a true choice question or not. When speaker, however, there’s an easy way to distinguish between a choice question and a yes-no question: tone of voice.

As you may recall, the speaker’s voice usually rises at the end of a yes-no question. This goes for yes-no questions that contain the word OR as well. Choice questions, meanwhile, will have a falling pitch at the end (while the speaker presents the second option in the question).

This is hard to demonstrate in a written article, but if you hear these types of questions spoken out loud, you should be able to note this important difference. In the dialogue above, however, there was no tone of voice to indicate what kind of question was being asked, since the conversation was over text. Those are moments when ambiguities like this can easily occur.

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5. WH-QUESTIONS

While yes-no questions are usually answered with a YES or NO (or some variation of these words, e.g. YEAH or NAH), a wh-question can expect any kind of information as a response. Wh-questions begin with WH-WORDS, which signify that the speaker is asking a question.

Here is a list of wh-words (this includes HOW, which doesn’t begin with a WH). Also note that different wh-words fall under different parts of speech, which will affect the way they are used in sentences.

• Who (asks about a person)—noun
• Whose (asks about possession)—adj
• Whom (variation of “who” depending on its case)—noun
• What (asks about a thing, sometimes a quality)—noun/adj
• When (asks about a time)—adv
• Where (asks about a place)—adv
• Why (asks about a reason)—adv
• How (asks about a method or quality)—adv
  • How much/many (asks about an amount)—adj/adv/noun
  • How + adj/adv (asks about an extent to which something is true)—adv
• Which (asks about a small set of choices)—adj/noun

Comprehensive List of Question Words

The following will explain different ways to construct different wh-questions, as categorized by parts of speech. Notice that many contain an inverted auxiliary verb and subject, just like in yes-no questions.

NOUN AS THE SUBJECT

Wh-words: who, what, how much/many, which

Formula:

Wh-word + rest of the sentence

(Notice that the wh-word simply replaces the subject of the sentence)

Examples:

• Who’s going to take care of the dog while we’re gone? (The neighbor is going to take care of the dog while we’re gone.)
• Who cooks the most in your family? (My mom cooks the most in my family.)
• Who ate the rest of my pizza? (Rohit ate the rest of your pizza.)
• What’s going on? Nothing’s going on.
• What’s on TV right now? ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ is on TV right now.

NOUN AS THE DIRECT OBJECT

Wh-words: who(m), what, how much/many, which

Formula:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence

Examples:

• Who did they end up choosing for the lead role?
  • They ended up choosing Erin for the lead role.
• Whom specifically will this new policy affect?
  • This new policy will affect the working class, specifically.
• Who are you calling an idiot?
  • I’m calling you an idiot.
• What are you cooking for dinner?
  • I’m cooking pasta for dinner.
• Which do you like better? Jeans or sweats?
  • I like jeans better.

Note: To be grammatically correct, the pronoun WHO should take the form WHOM if it is the direct or indirect object of the sentence. This, however, is usually reserved for formal writing, and the word WHOM in everyday speech is falling out of usage.

Often, it will sound much more natural to use WHO, no matter what case it takes (the case is the grammatical role a noun plays in relation to other nouns, e.g. subject, direct object, indirect object, etc.).

NOUN AS A COMPLIMENT

Wh-words: who, what, how much/many, which

Formula:

Wh-word + copula + subject

(The term COPULA simply refers to the linking verb TO BE)

Examples:

• Who are all these people in the streets?
  • (All these people in the streets are protestors.)
• Sorry, who are you?
  • (I’m Regan.)
• Who are you going to be in the play?
  • (I’m going to be a supporting character in the play.)
• What is photosynthesis?
  • Photosynthesis is a process by which plants make their own food.
• Which is the best option out of the two?
  • The best option out of the two is the first one.

NOUN WITH A PREPOSITION

Wh-words: who, what, how/much/many, which

Formulas:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence + preposition (sounds more casual)

Preposition + wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence (sounds more formal)

(If you are beginning the sentence with the word WHO, it’s normal to keep it as it is. However, if you choose to precede it with a preposition, it’s best to change WHO to its object form WHOM.)

Examples:

• Who were you on the phone with?
  • (I was on the phone with Jennifer.)
• With whom was Mr. Ramos seen with earlier this morning?
  • (Mr. Ramos was seen with his wife earlier this morning.)
• Who are you sending that package to?
  • (I’m sending this package to my cousin.)
• What is this world coming to?
  • (Rhetorical question)

NOUN AS THE SUBJECT OF A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

Wh-words: who, what, how much/many, which

Formula:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the independent clause + rest of the subordinate clause

Examples:

• Who do you think should be president?
  • I think Elizabeth Warren should be president.
• Who did you say tends to gossip a lot?
  • I said that Amity tends to gossip a lot.
• Who does Pierre want to win the World Cup?
  • Pierre wants Barcelona to win the World Cup.
• What do you think will happen if I skip class again today?
  • I think the professor will notice.
• Which do you think tastes better? Soymilk or almond milk?
  • I think almond milk tastes better.

ADVERB

Wh-words: when, where, why, how, how much, how + adv

Other possibilities: how many times, which way, what time, etc.

Formula:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence

Examples:

• When are you flying back to the States?
  • I’m flying back to the States on the 5th.
• When are you walking over to the party?
  • I’m walking over to the party in an hour.
• When did you start wearing makeup?
  • I started wearing makeup about a year ago.
• Where did you go while you were in China?
  • While I was in China, I went to Beijing and Shanghai.
• Where on the map does this train go?
  • This train goes to Wilmington on the map.
• Why do you hate cats so much?
  • I hate cats so much because they scratch everything.
• Why do stars twinkle?
  • Stars twinkle because of the way their light travels through our atmosphere.
• Why did your mom come to visit you last weekend?
  • My mom came to visit me last weekend to celebrate her birthday.
• How are you?
  • I’m fine, thank you.
• How did you finish your food so fast?
  • I finished my food that fast by not talking.
• How can I become more productive?
  • You can become more productive by meditating.
• How many times did you go on that rollercoaster?
  • I went on that rollercoaster five times.
• How nicely do I need to dress for tonight?
  • You need to dress nice enough for tonight.
• How well does she speak in public?
  • She speaks decently well in public.
• Which way should I go to get to the market?
  • You should go down the main road to get to the market.
• What time does the sun usually set nowadays?
  • The sun usually sets around six nowadays.

ADVERB WITH A PREPOSITION

Wh-words: when, where

Formulas:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence + preposition (sounds casual)

Preposition + wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence (sounds formal)

Examples:

• When do you plan on leaving the city by?
  • I plan on leaving the city by 9 p.m.
• When will the after party go until?
  • The party will go until three in the morning.
• By when do you think you’ll finish your application?
  • I think I’ll finish my application by next week.
• Where did you pass by on the way here?
  • I passed by the golf course on the way here.
• From where does the first chapter of the dissertation begin?
  • The first chapter of the dissertation begins after the roman numerals.

ADVERB IN A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

Wh-words: when, where, why, how, how much, how + adv

Formula:

Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the main clause + rest of the subordinate clause

Examples:

• When do they say is the best time to buy plane tickets?
  • They say the best to buy plane tickets is 47 days before the flight.
• When do you think we should have lunch?
  • I think we should have lunch around noon.
• Where did you say is your favorite restaurant?
  • I said my favorite restaurant is Jin Ramen.
• Where do you think is the best place to live in California?
  • I think the best place to live in California is the Bay Area.
• How much do you think you’re going to eat?
  • I think I’m only going to eat a little bit.
• How quickly should I expect to be out of this meeting?
  • You should expect to be out of this meeting within an hour.

ADVERB WITH AN ADJECTIVE

Wh-words: how + adj

Formulas:

Wh-word + adj + copula + subject

Wh-word + adj + OF + noun phrase + normal rules for nouns that were discussed previously

Wh-word + adj + auxiliary verb + subject + rest of the sentence (with a linking verb)

Examples:

• How scary is the haunted house?
  • The haunted house isn’t that scary.
• How tall is your boyfriend?
  • My boyfriend is six feet tall.
• How cool is that?
  • (Rhetorical question)
• How big of a space are we going to have for the performance?
  • We’re going to have a fairly big space for the performance.
• How cheap of a souvenir are you looking to buy?
  • I’m looking to buy a souvenir less than twenty dollars.
• How romantic did you expect that movie to be?
  • I didn’t expect that movie to be too romantic.
• How cold is it going to be outside?
  • It’s going to be very cold outside.
• How casual do you want this paper to sound?
  • I want this paper to sound a little casual but not too much.

ADJECTIVE WITH A NOUN

Wh-words: What, whose, which

Formula:

If the wh-word you’re using is an adjective modifying another noun, that noun follows the normal rules for nouns that were discussed previously.

Examples:

• Which car model did you end up buying?
  • I ended up buying a Toyota.
• Which runner on the team has the best stamina?
  • Sophie has the best stamina on the team.
• Which one should I pick?
  • You should pick the left one.
• What kind of laptop is the best for computer games?
  • PCs are the best for computer games.
• What brand of clothing do you usually like to buy?
  • I usually like to buy Zara.
• What person would ever buy a flight for four in the morning?
  • Rhetorical question
• What area did you go to while visiting Brooklyn?
  • I went to Williamsburg while visiting Brooklyn.

DETERMINER

Wh-words: how much/many

Formula:

A wh-word that serves as a determiner, whether or not it is modifying a noun, follows the normal rules for nouns that were discussed previously.

Examples:

• How much cash do you have in your wallet?
  • I have about twenty dollars in my wallet.
• How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollipop?
  • It takes many licks to get to the center of a lollipop.

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6. INTONATION

As we have seen before, intonation is a very important part of asking questions in English. When asking yes-no questions, the pitch of the voice usually rises at the end.

With wh-questions on the other hand, the tone of voice is usually identical to that of a declarative sentence. The main indicator of the “interrogativeness” of the question is instead the wh-word.

There are, however, times when the pitch does rise at the end of a wh-question. This usually happens when the speaker wants to confirm a piece of information, either out of surprise, lack of hearing, or forgetfulness.

Native speakers also tend to raise their pitch when asking extremely common questions like, WHERE ARE YOU FROM? and WHAT TIME IS IT?, almost as if these questions are secondhand remarks.

So far, we’ve seen wh-questions that all begin with a wh-word. Usually, the location where the wh-word’s part of speech would usually occur comes to the beginning of the sentence, accompanied by a subject-auxiliary inversion.

However, it’s possible for a wh-word to come in a position you would find in a normal, declarative sentence. When this happens, it serves the same functions as raising the pitch at the end of a wh-question—i.e., to show surprise or seek confirmation. Placing a wh-word in its declarative position is usually accompanied by a rising pitch as well.

More for you:
A BIG List of Prefixes and Suffixes and Their Meanings
12 (All) English Tenses with Examples
List of Sentence Connectors in English with Examples!

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7. ONE-WORDED WH-QUESTIONS

While wh-words can be used to construct fuller wh-questions, they can certainly be used by themselves in conversation. The same rules of intonation apply here, especially with the word WHAT which can often be said as an exclamation with a rising pitch.

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8. QUESTION TAGS

Question tags (sometimes called disjunctive questions), are small questions that appear at the end of sentences to seek confirmation from the other person. In other words, they expect the answer to be YES and are thus, a sort of variation of the yes-no question.

You might know this type of function from other languages, like Korean or Japanese, where question tags are represented through attached verb endings. In English, question tags are separate phrases that come at the end of statements in several forms.

One way to form a question tag is to take the subject (converted to a pronoun) and its corresponding auxiliary verb (if there is none, use the auxiliary verb TO DO) and form a negative yes-no question from them.

For example, IT IS will become ISN’T IT? and YOU CAN will become CAN’T YOU? Note that question tags are usually contracted. You could say something like IS IT NOT? or CAN YOU NOT? at the end of a statement, but it would sound strange.

Here are some examples of question tags:

• You’re old enough to drink, aren’t you?
• The president of the company retired last year, didn’t he?
• I should probably apologize, shouldn’t I?

Another common question tag is the word RIGHT. It, as well as any word that can be used to seek confirmation (no matter how casual), can be considered a question tag.

• You’re old enough to drink, right?
• It’s going to be a long car ride, huh?
• Brian’s gonna be covering your shift tomorrow, yeah?

You can also turn an entire sentence into a question tag by inverting the subject and auxiliary verb within the actual sentence, and similarly making it negative. Once again, always contract the auxiliary with the word NOT. Otherwise, the sentence will sound like a negative yes-no question, which we talked about earlier.

• Aren’t you old enough to drink?
• Didn’t the president of the company retire last year?
• Doesn’t he like romantic comedies?

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9. INDIRECT QUESTIONS

Indirect questions, also known as embedded questions, are questions not asked outright but nested within another sentence/question.

There are two main types of indirect questions, both with different functions: polite questions and reported questions.

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10. POLITE QUESTIONS

Instead of asking a question directly, you can make it more polite beginning with one of the following phrases:

• Could you tell me…?
• Do you know…?
• I was/am wondering…
• Do you have any idea…?
• I’d like to know…

The actual question you want to ask thus becomes embedded within a main statement. Asking a question indirectly like this is extremely common for making requests, both with strangers and with friends.

To make a wh-question more polite, use the following formula:

Main question + wh-word + rest of the question (no inversion)

Examples:

• Do you have any idea when the next bus arrives?
  • (When does the next bus arrive?)
• Do you know where the bathroom is?
  • (Where is the bathroom?)
• Could you tell me how this remote works?
  • (How does this remote work?)

Notice that while a direct wh-question contains an inversion, an embedded wh-question does not. The subject and auxiliary verb do not switch, and usually, you will end the question with the verb.

This is a very common mistake that foreigners make when speaking English and is the reason why inversions can be so hard to keep track of. The following indirect questions, which contain inversions, are therefore incorrect:

• Could you tell me when does the next bus arrive?
• Do you know where is the bathroom?
• Do any of you know how does this remote work?

To make a yes-no question indirect, use one of the following formulas. Once again, no inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb should take place.

Main question + IF + rest of the sentence (+ OR NOT)

Main question + WHETHER (OR NOT) + rest of the sentence

Main question + WHETHER + rest of the sentence (+ OR NOT)

Examples:

• Do you know if Daniel is lactose intolerant (or not)?
• I was wondering if you could drop me off at work later.
• I’d like to know whether or not it’s possible to open an account.

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11. REPORTED QUESTIONS

You may have heard of the term REPORTED SPEECH or INDIRECT STATEMENT, which looks something like this:

• I heard that the company’s having an open bar tonight. (The company’s having an open bar tonight.)
• Des told me that he started working at the bookstore. (Des started working at the bookstore.)
• I warned you that the roads were slippery! (The roads are slippery.)

Questions can similarly be reported, or restated, in the form of an indirect question. The same rules apply here as with polite questions.

Wh-questions do not contain inversions, and yes-no questions are embedded beginning either with an IF or a WHETHER (with an optional OR NOT). Choice questions can also be embedded, beginning with the word WHETHER.

• He asked me suspiciously what my favorite dessert was.
• I’ll ask her where we should drive in a second.
• The professor queried the student why he wasn’t showing up in class.

Notice that when the main clause, which contains a verb like ASK, is in the past tense, the reported question is also placed in the past tense. This is known as backshift, and is often required for tense consistency. Notice the difference between these reported questions:

• I’ll ask Kenny if he has any spare phone chargers.
• I’m asking Kenny if he has any spare phone chargers.
• I asked Kenny if he had any spare phone chargers. (Backshift occurs)
• I was asking Kenny if he had any spare phone chargers. (Backshift occurs)

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12. OTHER INDIRECT QUESTIONS

While reported questions are often embedded within clauses that contain verbs like ASK or QUERY not all indirect questions have to be like this. Many are embedded within main clauses that contain verbs like the following:

• To tell
• To wonder
• To know
• To understand
• To sense
• To predict
• To say
• To explain
• Etc.

The same rules of backshift and inversion apply.

• I wonder where my watch could be.
• I don’t think I understand what you’re talking about.
• I can’t tell whether you’re being serious or sarcastic.
• Can animals sense if it’s going to rain?
• My mom can always predict when I’m going to call her.
• Nobody should ever tell the boss what to do.

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13. RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

Rhetorical questions cannot be summed up into one grammatical category. Rather, they are questions that don’t expect an answer and are used for mostly rhetorical or stylistic purposes.

Almost any question, therefore, can be considered a rhetorical question in the right context. That being said, here are some examples of common types of rhetorical questions:

“WHAT?”

Instead of literally asking what something is, the question WHAT? can simply be used to express surprise or disbelief, or indicate that you find something remarkable. Because of this, it’s sometimes written with an exclamation point instead of a question mark.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” / “ARE YOU SERIOUS?”

These kinds of questions similarly express shock or disbelief. But even though they’re rhetorical, it’s often normal to answer with a YES or NO

Here are some alternatives to this type of rhetorical question you can use:

• Seriously?
• (Are you) for real?
• Are you joking?
• Is this real?

More for you:
7 Simple Examples of Business Email Writing in English
1000+ Most Popular English Idioms and Their Meanings
Family Relationships in English And Phrases About Family

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14. TAG QUESTIONS THAT AREN’T REALLY TAG QUESTIONS

These are statements like ISN’T HE CUTE! or ISN’T THIS GREAT! They look like tag questions, except they differ in three main ways: They don’t rise in pitch, they end in a period rather than a question mark, and they don’t expect an answer of confirmation in return.

Not every statement can be turned into this kind of rhetorical question, and some are usually perceived as sarcastic, while others are not. Here are some examples:

• Isn’t he adorable! (Often used with dogs, babies, etc.)
• Aren’t you smart. (Sarcastic—used to mean that somebody is a showoff)
• Isn’t that neat!
• Isn’t that cool!
• Isn’t that exciting!
• Isn’t that (just) great. (Sarcastic—used to describe an unfavorable situation)
• Isn’t that fantastic. (Similarly sarcastic)

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15. QUESTIONS USED TO COMPLAIN

A common rhetorical question is one meant to complain a person, thing, or situation.

• Why does this store have to close so early?
• Who do you think you are?
• Why do you have to act like such a child?
• When can I catch a break around here?
• Why does everything always have to happen to me?

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16. QUESTIONS THAT THE SPEAKER WILL ANSWER

Some questions are presented specifically so that the speaker can answer it themselves. These are often found in the context of a speech, essay, article, advertisement, or anything else meant to make some persuasive argument.

• Many people consider justice to be a fundamental virtue. But what exactly is “justice”? Different philosophers have found several answers…
• What’s the best way to lose weight fast? The answer might surprise you…
• Why do we call it “social media” when all it does is isolate people? Perhaps we should come up with a better name for it…

Специальные вопросы (special questions, wh-questions) в английском используются, чтобы узнать или уточнить информацию. Они могут задаваться к любому слову и члену предложения — в зависимости от того, что нужно узнать говорящему.

В отличие от общего вопроса (general question) на специальный вопрос нельзя ответить yes или no.

В английском языке еще есть несколько типов вопросов, помимо общих и специальных:

1. Альтернативный вопрос (ответ подразумевает выбор между двумя, иногда более, вариантами).

• Do you prefer Coca-Cola or Fanta? — Вы предпочитаете Кока-Колу или Фанту?
• Have you been to Great Britain, the USA, or other English-speaking countries? — Вы были в Великобритании, США или других англоязычных странах?

2. Разделительный вопрос (выражающий сомнение или предположение).

• John Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono is still alive, isn’t she? — Жена Джона Леннона Йоко Оно до сих пор жива, не так ли?

3. Отдельным подвидом специальных вопросов является вопрос к подлежащему (когда надо уточнить, кто или что совершает действие или обладает признаками). Об этом мы тоже поговорим в статье.

• Who wrote these words on the wall? — Кто написал эти слова на стене?

Итак, поговорим о специальных вопросах и тонкостях их составления.

Вопросительные слова и конструкции

Специальные вопросы начинаются с особых вопросительных слов (местоимений).

• What? — Что?
• Where? — Где?
• When? — Когда?
• Why? — Почему?
• Who? — Кто?
• Which? — Который?
• Whose? — Чей?
• Whom? — Кого?
• How? — Как?

What, where и when — наиболее употребительные из вопросительных английских слов.

Приведём примеры.

• What are you doing in Paris? — Что вы делаете в Париже?
• Where is the ring I gave you as a birthday present? — Где кольцо, которое я тебе подарил на день рождения?
• When are you leaving Russia for Mexico? — Когда ты уезжаешь из России в Мексику?
• Why are you afraid of dogs? — Почему ты боишься собак?
• Who is the man with long hair she is talking to? — Кто тот мужчина с длинными волосами, с которым она говорит?
• Which of these bags is yours? — Которая из этих сумок твоя?
• Whose bicycle is it? — Чей это велосипед?
• Whom did he meet at the party? — Кого он встретил на вечеринке?
• How did you get to that village in the mountains without a car? — Как вы добрались до той деревни в горах без машины?

Также для составления специальных вопросов используются вопросительные конструкции, состоящие из двух слов:

• What kind? — Какой?
• What time? — Во сколько?
• How many? — Сколько? (для исчисляемых существительных)
• How much? — Сколько? (для неисчисляемых существительных)
• How long? — Как долго?
• How often? — Как часто?
• How far? — Как далеко?

Как и вопросительные местоимения, конструкции из двух слов ставятся в начало предложения.

• What kind of music will be played at the festival? — Какую музыку будут играть на фестивале?
• What time do you usually go to sleep? — В какое время вы обычно ложитесь спать?
• How many trees are there in the garden? — Сколько деревьев в саду?
• How much money do you spend in a month? — Сколько денег вы тратите в месяц?
• How long have you been studying Chinese? — Как давно вы изучаете китайский?
• How often do you visit the dentist? — Как часто вы ходите к стоматологу?
• How far can these planes fly? — Как далеко могут летать эти самолеты?

Объясним разницу между некоторыми словами и выражениями.

What и which

Вопросительное местоимение what используется в вопросе, число ответов на который не указано.

• What books do you read? — Какие книги вы читаете?

Местоимение which подразумевает выбор из нескольких предметов или вариантов ответа.

• Which of these knives is yours? — Какой из этих ножей ваш?

В отдельных случаях what и which могут быть взаимозаменяемыми. Вот пример:

• What’s your favourite drink? — Какой ваш любимый напиток?
• Which drink do you prefer? — Какой напиток (который из имеющихся) вы предпочитаете?

Местоимение what, переводимое как «что», может указывать на вопрос к подлежащему.

• What made you cry? — Что заставило тебя плакать?

Which часто используется при сравнении неодушевленных объектов между собой.

• Which is bigger: London or Moscow? — Что больше: Лондон или Москва?

С одушевленными существительными используется местоимение who.

• Who is bigger: a bear or a lion? — Кто больше: медведь или лев?

Местоимение what используется с одушевленными существительными только тогда, когда речь идет о профессии, роде деятельности или социальном статусе.

• What does he do? — Кто он (кем он работает)?
• What does his brother do for a living? — Чем зарабатывает на жизнь его брат?

What и what kind of

Изучающим английский часто приходится объяснять разницу между вопросительным местоимением what (что, какой) и словосочетанием what kind of (какого вида/ типа/ рода)

Различие четкое.

What kind of всегда указывает на какое-то качество объекта, в то время как what просто уточняет, что это за объект. Проиллюстрируем на примере.

• What animal is this? — Что это за животное?
• It’s a platypus. — Это утконос.
• What kind of animal is the platypus? — Что за животное утконос?
• It’s a mammal. — Это млекопитающее.

How much и how many

Обе этих конструкции означают “сколько”. How much используется с неисчисляемыми существительными, how many — с исчисляемыми.

• How much water do I need to drink a day? — Сколько воды мне надо пить в день?
• How many times has he been to Europe? — Сколько раз он был в Европе?

Вещества (в том числе еда, напитки, металлы, лекарства) в английском являются неисчисляемыми, если к ним не применены единицы измерения.

• How much milk should I buy? — Сколько молока мне надо купить?
• How much aspirin did she take? — Сколько аспирина она приняла?

Но:

• How many bottles of milk are there in the fridge? — Сколько бутылок молока в холодильнике?
• How many pills of aspirin did she take? — Сколько таблеток аспирина она приняла?

То же самое касается денег. Слова money и currency — неисчисляемые, названия валют — исчисляемые.

• How much money did they spend? — Сколько денег они потратили?
• How many dollars did they spend? — Сколько долларов они потратили?

Как задать специальный вопрос

Специальные вопросы в английском языке задаются по следующей схеме:

вопросительное слово или словосочетание + вспомогательный или модальный глагол + подлежащее + сказуемое + остальные члены предложения

• What (вопросительное слово) do (вспомогательный глагол) you (подлежащее) do (сказуемое) in the evening (обстоятельство времени)? — Что ты делаешь вечером?
• What countries have you been to? — В каких странах ты был?

Примеры специальных вопросов со вспомогательным глаголом:

• When does your class start? — Когда начинается твой урок?
• What will you do there? — Что вы будете там делать?

Примеры специальных вопросов с модальным глаголом:

• What (вопросительное слово) must (модальный глагол) you (подлежащее) do (сказуемое) to get a job (остальные члены предложения)? — Что вы должны сделать, чтобы получить работу?
• Where can I buy a car? — Где я могу купить машину?

Примеры специальных вопросов с глаголом to be:

• Where (вопросительное слово) is (глагол to be в правильной форме) your coat (подлежащее)? — Где твое пальто?
• When were they in Turkey? — Когда они были в Турции?

Во всех случаях вспомогательный или модальный глагол идет перед подлежащим, основной глагол — после него.

Специальный вопрос к разным членам предложения

Специальный вопрос может быть задан к разным членам предложения. Приведем примеры.

Специальный вопрос к определению (whose, what, which, how much/ how many)

• It is her phone. — Это ее телефон.
• Whose phone is it? — Чей это телефон?

• This book is the most interesting of all. — Эта книга самая интересная из всех.
• Which book is the most interesting of all? — Какая книга самая интересная из всех?

• I enjoy listening to jazz music. — Я люблю слушать джаз.
• What music do you enjoy listening to? — Какую музыку вы любите слушать?

• The fish costs ten dollars. — Рыба стоит десять долларов.
• How much is the fish? — Сколько стоит рыба?

• There were about ten thousand people at the demonstration. — На демонстрации было около десяти тысяч человек.
• How many people were there at the demonstration? — Сколько человек было на демонстрации?

Специальный вопрос к дополнению (what, who, whom)

• I saw the full moon at night. — Я видел полную луну ночью.
• What did you see at night? — Что ты видел ночью?

• She will see her son tomorrow. — Завтра она увидит своего сына.
• Who (whom) will she see tomorrow? — Кого она увидит завтра?

Специальный вопрос к обстоятельству времени (when)

• The American writer Jack Kerouac was born in 1922. — Американский писатель Джек Керуак родился в 1922 году.
• When was Jack Kerouac born? — Когда родился Джек Керуак?

Специальный вопрос к обстоятельству места (where)

• He met his future wife at the disco. — Он познакомился со своей будущей женой на дискотеке.
• Where did he meet his future wife? — Где он познакомился со своей будущей женой?

Специальный вопрос к обстоятельству причины (why, what for)

• My mother was angry because I was rude to her. — Моя мама разозлилась, потому что я был груб к ней.
• Why was my mother angry? — Почему моя мама разозлилась?

• She talked to them to give them all the necessary information. — Она поговорила с ними, чтобы дать всю необходимую информацию.
• What did she talk to them for? — Зачем она с ними говорила?

Обратите внимание: при употреблении словосочетания what for предлог ставится в конце вопроса.

Специальный вопрос к обстоятельству условия (why, when)

• She will buy a car if she saves money for it. — Она купит машину, если накопит на нее деньги.
• When will she buy a car? — Когда она купит машину?

• He asked them to visit him if he needed help. — Он попросил их зайти к нему, если ему понадобится помощь
• Why did he ask them to visit him? — Почему он попросил их зайти к нему?

Специальный вопрос к обстоятельству образа действия (how)

• He can make wooden toys using only a knife. — Он умеет делать деревянные игрушки, используя только нож.
• How can he make wooden toys? — Как он умеет делать деревянные игрушки?

Специальный вопрос к подлежащему (who, what)

Для вопросов к подлежащему не нужны вспомогательные глаголы — достаточно заменить подлежащее на местоимение who (для одушевленных) или what (для неодушевленных).

• Thom Yorke is the frontman of the band Radiohead. — Том Йорк — фронтмен группы Radiohead.
• Who is the frontman of the band Radiohead? — Кто фронтмен группы Radiohead?

• Something was hanging between the trees. — Что-то висело между деревьями.
• What was hanging between the trees? — Что висело между деревьями?

Отрицательная форма специального вопроса

Чтобы задать отрицательный специальный вопрос, нужно добавить после подлежащего частицу not.

• Where has she not been yet? — Где она еще не была?

В разговорной речи чаще используется краткая форма, в которой частица not сливается с модальным или вспомогательным глаголом и, соответственно, ставится перед подлежащим.

• Why aren’t you going anywhere? — Почему ты никуда не уходишь?

Как отвечать на специальный вопрос

В отличие от общих вопросов, на специальные вопросы не отвечают yes или no. На них нужны поясняющие ответы — краткие или развернутые.

When will he arrive? — Когда он приедет?

• Tomorrow. — Завтра.
• I don’t know yet. — Я еще не знаю.
• He will arrive in an hour. — Он приедет в течение часа.

На вопрос к подлежащему, как правило, дается краткий ответ из подлежащего либо из подлежащего и сказуемого, выраженного модальным или вспомогательным глаголом.

• Who can help the teacher? — Кто может помощь учителю?
• I can. — Я могу.

• What is located between the hospital and the bar? — Что расположено между больницей и баром?
• The church. — Церковь.

• What made him so frightened? — Что его так напугало?
• The horror movie did. — Фильм ужасов.

На вопросы к дополнению, определению и обстоятельству можно отвечать полно или кратко в зависимости от контекста. В разговорной речи чаще используются краткие ответы.

• What bands did you hear live in the 2000’s? — Какие группы вы слышали живьем в 2000-е?
• I heard Jethro Tull, Dead Can Dance and Tiger Lillies when they came to Russia. — Я слышал Jethro Tull, Dead Can Dance и Tiger Lillies, когда они приезжали в Россию.

• Whose family lived in London? — Чья семья жила в Лондоне?
• My family did. — Моя семья.
• Mine (did). — Моя.

• Where was Pushkin born? — Где родился Пушкин?
• (Не was born) in Moscow. — (Он родился) в Москве.

Упражнение на закрепление

А теперь проверим себя и зададим вопросы к предложениям ниже, используя вопросительные слова в скобках.

1. The great American jazz musician Lee Konitz died in 2020 at the age of 92. (Who?)
2. His mother’s ancestors were born and raised in Odessa. (Where?)
3. She is going to give up smoking if she gets pregnant. (When?)
4. It is Peter’s laptop. (Whose?)
5. Adam and Jessica’s daughter was born in 2005. (When?)
6. An average apartment in St. Petersburg costs about 5 million roubles. (How much?)
7. My brother had to work hard because he needed to rent a house for his family. (Why?)
8. There were more than 500 people at the band’s first concert. (How many?)
9. She met her favourite actor at the airport. (Whom?)
10. She didn’t get a job because she wasn’t good at programming. (Why?)
11. He goes to the church only twice a year, on Christmas and Easter. (How often?)
12. They came to the sea by bus. (How?)
13. Her father saw his daughter’s works at the exhibition at the local museum. (What?)
14. A terrible illness has changed his face a lot. (What?)
15. His grandfather was an artist. (What?)
16. The tallest man of the three is my neighbour. (Which?)
17. My working day starts at 9.30 AM. (What time?)
18. She lives 5,000 miles apart from her parents. (How far?)
19. He hasn’t been eating meat for a month. (How long?)
20. The Pallas cat is a wild animal. (What kind of)