Who questions examples. How to ask a question to the subject in English. Examples. Questions to the subject - how to answer

We continue to tell you how to ask the right questions in English language. Today we will get acquainted with special questions and questions to the subject. Go!

So, why did we decide to separate these types of questions into one article. The fact is that both types of questions begin with the question words Wh-. The difference is only in the very construction of the question and the purpose for which it must be asked.

So, asking the subject helps us clarify information about someone. And special questions help to find out more information in a certain situation - about the place, time, quality of the subject, etc.

Special question

A special question begins with an interrogative word (or group of words) followed by an auxiliary or modal verb, subject and semantic verb (the structure of the general question is preserved). The special question is constructed according to the same scheme as general question: first auxiliary or the modal verb is placed before the subject, in present And Past Indefinite(where there is no auxiliary verb) the auxiliary verb is used to do (do, does, did), and the semantic verb is put in the infinitive without to (dictionary form). Verbs to be And to have(in the role of a semantic verb) do not require an auxiliary verb to do, (they themselves are placed before the subject).

Scheme of a special question:

In addition to the question words presented in the diagram, there are others. There are a lot of them, we advise you to remember them.

Question to the subject

In fact, the question to the subject is the same special question, but you need to ask it a little differently.

In English, we ask the question to the subject using the words: who - who (for living beings: people, animals, birds, etc.) what - what (for inanimate objects: plants, things, nature, etc.) We put these words in the first place in the sentence, replacing them with the character. When we ask a question to the subject, we do not need to remember the auxiliary verb and put it in the first place.

Scheme of the question to the subject:

site, with full or partial copying of the material, a link to the source is required.

In order to ask a question to the subject in English, you first need to understand 3 things: what is the subject (the main member of the sentence, answers the question who? what?), what and.

Special subject question in English. Structure.

1. My colleague is writing a report in the office.

2. 10 students came to school.

3. Porridge is burning in the kitchen.

Negative form of questions to the subject in English

The negative form of questions to the subject in English is based on the principle negative proposals, that is, the auxiliary verbs do, does, did are used. We put the NOT particle after the modal or auxiliary verb.

4. This student hasn't answered my question yet.

5. Kate doesn't speak English.

How to write a question to the subject in English?

1. Find the subject in a sentence.
2. Replace it with the right one interrogative pronoun
   — Who? (who?) or What? (What?).
3. Keep the direct word order, while leaving all the members of the sentence in their places.
4. Making a question to the subject in English
   remember to agree the verb with the subject - in present simple use the verb in
   third person singular - add the ending -s (es) to
   verb (e.g. Who wants tea?).

5. IMPORTANT! Question to determination of the subject
   has the same structure as the question to the subject,
   while using special words such as what?
   (what?), which (which?), whose (whose?), how many/much
   (How many?).

Questions to determine the subject in English:

1. What film is the best? What is the best movie?
2. How many students attend lectures? How many students
   attending lectures?

Examples of questions to the subject in English

Example 1

John is going to England next week.

1. Subject - John

2. Replace John with who

3. We keep the direct word order (that is,
subject + predicate)

Question to the subject: Who is going to England
next week? Who's going to England next
week?

Example 2

Viktuk's play was staged.

Questions to the subject:

Whose play was staged?
Whose play was staged?

What was staged? What was put on stage?

Example 3

The girls are happy.

Question to the subject: Who is happy? Who
happy?

Example 4

We were in the circle.

Question to the subject: Who was in the circle?
Who was in the circus?

Example 5

We were in the circle.

Question to the subject: Who was in the circle?
Who was in the circus?

Exercises (question to the subject in English
language)

1. 5 (O)
2. 6 (O)
3. 7(S)
4. 8(S)
5. 9(O)
6. 10(S)

Exercise 2. Compare pairs of sentences, find the subject in each sentence, determine which of the questions is a question for the subject - a) or b), translate the sentences into English. In one of the pairs, both sentences are questions to the subject.

1. a) Who will you go with? versus b) who will go
   with you?
2. a) What does he do? versus b) Who does it?
3. a) Who thought about his health? versus b) What did he think about?
4. a) Whose car did you scratch? versus b) Who
   scratched your car?
5. a) Which girl has served dinner? versus
   b) Who has to serve dinner?

1. a) Who will you go with? Who are you going with? versus b)
   Who will go with you? Who will go with you? b) - question to
   subject
2. What does he do? What is he doing? versus Who does it?
   Who does it? b) - question to the subject
3. Who thought about his health? who thought about his
   health? What did he think about? What is he talking about
   thought? a) - question to the subject
4. a) Whose car did you scratch? Whose car are you
   scratched? versus b) Who scratched your car? Who
   scratched your car? b) - question to
   subject
5. Which girl has served dinner? Which of the girls
   served dinner? versus Who has to serve dinner? Who should
   serve dinner? a) and b) - questions to
   subject

Exercise 3. Correct the mistakes.

1. Who like to sing?
2. Who did was in the park?
3. What does make you think so?
4. Who did see the accident?
5. What does washing need?
6. Who did make you feel disappointed?

School Mary Vanna did her best to make you remember that every question in English must contain an auxiliary verb. And you can't blame her for that. But for some reason, a special type of question remains unattended - a question to the subject. It is not surprising that when studying the topic Subject Questions many students find it very difficult to understand: How is this a special question and without an auxiliary verb?

Indeed, this type of question exists and is used very often. And in order to correctly build questions to the subject, you need to figure out once and for all what is subject and what is addition. Let's start with this.

Subject in a sentence - the one who acts, the acting person, maybe not even a person, but an inanimate object. The subject always answers the question: Who? What? In terminology English grammar- This subject.

Addition in a sentence, it is the one to whom the action is directed. Answers questions about cases: Whom? What? To whom? What? By whom? How? and so on. In the terminology of English grammar is called object.

John called Kate.

Who acted in this situation, who called? John. This is subject . Who is the target of the action, who was called? Kate. This is object .

If we need to ask about one of them, we will use a question word who.

Let's say we know that John called someone. We ask: Who did John call?

Who did John call? Who did John call?

This is an object question, because we know the subject. The word order of this question is indirect, there is an auxiliary verb did that comes before the subject.
And we will answer this question like this:

Kate. John called Kate.

Otherwise, we know someone called Kate. How to ask who called her? In this question, we need to find out who was the actor. Let's try this:

Who did Kate call? Who did Kate call?

This is a grammatically correct question, but similar to the one we asked above, just with a different name. In this case, from the question it turns out that Kate called someone, in this question Kate is the subject, the actor. But she didn't call anyone, it was someone who called her. The situation is distorted. We need another question.

Let's try it differently:

Who did call Kate?

This question is grammatically incorrect. Word order is broken. First, there should be an interrogative word (who), then an auxiliary verb (did), after - the subject ... Stop, but we don’t have information about the subject, we just need to find out WHO called, who performed the action.

Finally, we come to the most basic.

To ask a question to the subject, we do not need to change places or add anything. You just need to put the question word who in place of the unknown subject:

Someone called Kate.

Who called Kate? - John. John called Kate.

The rule is very simple: if you need to find out who performed the action, then the question word who is put instead of the unknown subject and the word order does not change.

As you can see, there is nothing difficult in constructing a subject question, but there is one more problem: how to distinguish a subject question from an object question ? Let's look at the comparison again:

Let's imagine ourselves as extremely curious, and by examples we will consider how to set different types questions:

The thief stole his bag. - The thief stole his bag.

See you in training!

It often happens that we need to find out who exactly performs (performed or will perform) some action or who has some kind of quality. In this case, "Who is writing the letter?" is given. (Who writes a letter?) or "Who was smart?" (Who was clever?). They are called in English special questions to the subject, they begin with interrogative words (who, what, where, where, how much, and so on) and usually do not present any particular difficulty. It is safe to say that this topic is one of the easiest for the entire course of study. But at the same time, everyone who wants to master the language should learn to ask questions to the subject, since without this skill, communication in English is almost impossible. First you need to understand the terminology.

Members of the proposal

The terms "subject" and "predicate" are used to designate the actor and action. Examples:

• He plays football (He plays football).

In this sentence, He is the subject (actor), plays is the predicate (action).

• She looks like an angel (She looks like an angel).

Here She is the subject, looks like is the predicate.

Another important concept is the question word. There are two such words: "who" and "what" - in questions to the subject in English. An example will help clarify the concepts discussed.

• Who has done a job? (Who has already done the work?).

They are laughing. (They are laughing.)

Who is laughing? (Who's laughing?)

Here, many make the mistake of putting the auxiliary verb plural are. Under no circumstances should this be done!

In other varieties of the present tense, you need to act in a similar way.

Past tense

The question to the subject in English in this case is even easier to ask. Nothing needs to be changed, except for changing the subject with a question word and in some cases replacing the auxiliary verb. As has been repeatedly said and proven by examples, the predicate to the subject in questions must certainly be in the 3rd person and singular. number. So Were's auxiliary verb interrogative sentence should not be!

So let's take a look at the past. Examples of questions to the subject in English:

She was good to me. (She was kind to me.) - Past Simple.

Who was good to me? (Who's been good to me?)

They were waiting for him. (They were looking forward to it.) -

Who was waiting for him? (Who was looking forward to it?)

The summer had already gone (Summer has already passed). - Past perfect.

Who had already gone? (What's gone already?)

Future

In the future tense, difficulties can arise only in its completed form.

You will have lost your money till Sunday. (You will have spent the money by Sunday).

Who will have lost your money till Sunday? (Who will spend the money before Sunday).

Answers

How to answer such questions? As easy as pie. In the colloquial version, the answer can be one word, that is, the subject itself, for example, He, She, Uncle John, and so on.

But it would be most correct to adhere to the following scheme: "subject, supplemented by an auxiliary verb."

Who went skating yesterday? (Who skated yesterday?)

Sam did. (Sam.)

Who is missing? (Who is absent?)

John is. (John.)

Now you know what you need to do to correctly ask a question to the subject in English. The examples above should be reviewed again before starting the exercises. You should also repeat the pattern of constructing questions.

Questions to the subject in English. Exercises

1. Ask your friend about who he likes to spend his free time with.
2. Ask a question for the following sentence: I want to live forever.
3. Correct the mistake: Who are glad to see me?
4. Answer the question: What is your favorite animal?
5. Translate into English: "Who will go to the beach tomorrow?"

Practice also asking questions to any sentences in English. This will help you bring the skill to the necessary automatism.

The article discussed the topic of how to ask a question to the subject in English using examples. We hope that this information was simple, interesting and useful for you.

Good afternoon dear friends!

One of the most important skills in English is the ability to ask questions. It will come in handy in any situation: if you want to meet someone, ask for directions, buy something in a store. Therefore, today I will tell you about a whole separate group - about questions to the subject in English.

From this article you will learn:

Let's understand the terms

First, let's define what a subject is. This is the subject that performs an action. It can be expressed different parts speeches:

1. Nouns. The cat is sleeping (The cat is sleeping).
2. Own name. Cindy likes oranges (Cindy loves oranges).
3. Pronoun. He is wearing a jacket (He is wearing a jacket).
4. Gerund. Talking on the phone is forbidden here (Talking on the phone is prohibited here).
5. Infinitive. To go jogging in the morning is very healthy (Going for a run in the morning is very healthy).

We need this knowledge when this subject is not known or we want to clarify something about him. For example, someone broke a mug and you want to know. You will angrily say: Who broke the cup?

For this type of sentence, we need only two question words: Who (who), What (what). Remember the last lesson about?

Something is missing

Looking at their scheme, you may notice that the word order is not the same as in the special questions we are used to. Or rather, it is more like a statement. How to ask a question to the subject in English? The rule is simple. Do you want modal verbs?

Here you do not need to memorize auxiliary verbs, as in other questions. They are simply not here. All you need to do is replace the known subject with who or what. For example, Steve has got the keys (Steve has the keys). Steve is the subject. But if it is unknown to you, we get: Who has got the keys? (Who has the keys?). As you can see, only one word has changed. main parts of a sentence in English?

The difference between a subject question and a special question

Let's look at examples of questions to the subject in different grammatical tenses in the table:

How to answer them?

There are two ways to answer: short and full. The first contains only one word - the subject. For example, Who is talking on the phone? (Who's on the phone?) The answer is David. Did you repeat about articles for numerals?

The second contains the subject and auxiliary verb of the tense in which the sentence is built.

We get: David is.
Another example: Who sings this song? (Who sings this song?) Sandra/ Sandra does. By the way, remember pronouns?

Do not forget to subscribe so as not to miss anything and receive as a gift - a phrasebook in English, German and French. It has Russian transcription, so even without knowing the language, you can easily master colloquial phrases.

For memorization

Now, so that everything is finally remembered, we will work out the knowledge gained in the exercise. Translate the sentences into English:

1. What's in the bag?
   For example, What is in the bag?
2. Who will call Jim?
3. What happened to the computer?
4. Who turned off the light?
5. Who wants to go to the theater with me?
6. What's in the refrigerator?
7. Who broke the glasses?
8. Who watches football?

That's all. If you are interested in learning something else about the English language, subscribe to the Viva Europe blog.

I was with you, a philologist of the English language, Ekaterina Martynova.
I wish you all a good mood!