A Yes/No question = a question that may be

answered by yes or no.

Yes/no questions are asked using  be, have, do,

or a modal verb. 

Yes/no questions always begin with one of

these verbs and can be answered with a

simple yes or no, or with the question repeated

as a statement.

Am I your best friend? Yes (you are).

Is this interesting? No (it is not).

Are these islands part of Greece? Yes (they are).

Was his idea good? No (it wasn't).

Were they happy? Yes (they were).

Examples :

Am I near your house? No (you aren't).

Is he in Panamá? Yes (he is).

Are we at the border yet? No (we're not).

Was his apartment above a bakery? Yes (it was).

Were the demonstrations downtown? No (they weren't).

LOCATIONbe + a prepositional phrase asks about present or past be + a prepositional phrase asks about present or past 

location.location.Examples :Examples :

Am I going with you and Tom? Yes (you are).

Is England adopting the euro? No (it isn't).

Are we seeing a play tonight? Yes (we are).

Is she working today? No (she isn't).

CURRENT ACTIVITY / SITUATION• To ask about a current activity or situation, use

the present progressive: present tense of be + present participle (verb+ing).

Examples :

Was it raining? Yes (it was).

Was Anna cooking? No (she wasn't).

Were the prisoners rebelling? Yes (they were).

Were they singing? No (they weren't).

PAST ACTIVITY / SITUATION• To ask about a past activity or situation, use the

past progressive: past tense of be + present

participle.

• Example:

Was he given a reward? Yes (he was).

Was I chosen? No (you weren't).

Were you driven home in a taxi? Yes (we were).

Were dinosaurs killed by meteors? No (they weren't).

PAST EVENT

HAVE

• Use the verb have to ask if some action has taken

place or whether somebody has done something.

• Notice that the auxiliary verb have is in the present

tense

* and the main verb is always a past participle.

* it is possible to ask a yes/no question with had,

but this is done in very specific situations .

Has your brother left? No (he hasn't).

Have you flown before? Yes (I have).

Has the party started? Yes (it has).

Have the guests eaten? No (they haven't).

Examples:

Do they smoke? No (they don't).

Does Bogotá get cold? Yes (it does).

Did it work? No (it didn't).

Do flying fish really fly? No (they don't).

Does running hurt your knees? Yes (it does).

Did teaching challenge you? Yes (it did).

DO

Can we stay? Yes (we can stay).Could this be true? Yes (it could be true).

Should they stop? No (they shouldn't).

May I help you? Yes (you may).

Will it rain? No (it won't rain).

Would you go with me? Yes (I would).

MODALS

• Use modal verbs to obtain more information about

possibilities or uncertainties.

• Modals are always followed by verbs in the infinitive

without to. EXAMPLES :EXAMPLES :

The 7 WH questions are(1 husband and 6 wife)

WHo

WHat

WHere

HoW

WHen

WHy

WHich

• These questions are the KEY to learning.• You can never answer these questions with yes or no.

When do we use these questions ?

• These questions are used to gather information.

Example : What is your name ?

• This question is asked at the beginning of a conversation when you are meeting someone new.

• The speaker get their information by asking WH questions.

So how do you know what WH question to use ?

Who? What?

Where?

When?

Why? How? Which?

PersonPeople

ThingIdeaEventAction

Place Time Reason

Way OR quality/ quantity

ThingIdeaEventAction

• Who ?Who is your father?( Use who when you want information about a person )

• What ?What did you do last night ?( Use what when you want information about a thing )

• When ?When is your birthday ?( Use when when you want information about the time something

happens )

• Where ?Where are you ?

( Use where when you want information about a place )

• Why ?Why do you want to be a teacher ?

( Use why when you want to know the reason for something )

• How ?How many dogs do you have ?

( Use how when you want to know the way in which something is

done OR when you want to know the quality/quantity )

• Question tags are short form at the end of statements.

They are mainly used in speech when we want to confirm

something or when we want to find out if something is

true or not.

- It isn’t a dog, is it?

- They are cats, aren’t they?• Question tags are formed with the auxiliary or modal

verb from the main sentence and the appropriate subject

pronoun.

- Karen is learning to drive, isn’t she?

- Mark can’t ride a horse, can he?

• We use a negative question tag after a positive sentence.

- Kate will be here soon, won’t she?

- There was a lot of traffic, wasn’t there?

- Michael should pass the exam, shouldn’t he?

• We use a positive question tag after a negative sentence.

- Kate won’t be late, will she?

- They don’t like us, do they?

- You haven’t got a car, have you?

• When the verb of the sentence is in the present or past

simple, we form the question tag with do/does or did and

the subject pronoun.

- John doesn’t like golf, does he?

- They left for Milan, didn’t they?

• When the sentence contains a word with a negative

meaning like never, hardly, seldom or rarely, the

question tag is positive.

- They hardly ever go to the theatre, do they?

- He never plays tennis, does he?

• Intonation

Question tags can either be ‘real’ questions where you

want to know the answer or simply asking for

agreement when we already know the answer.

If the question tag is a real question we use rising

intonation. Our tone of voice rises.

If we already know the answer we use falling

intonation. Our tone of voice falls.