All sections
Foundations
The verb system
Describing and connecting
- 09 Adjectives and adverbs
- 10 Prepositions
- 11 Conjunctions
- 12 Building longer sentences
- 13 Punctuation and capital letters
Words and sounds
Practice and progress
07Core
Questions, negatives and short answers
In Urdu a question can keep the same word order as a statement. In English it cannot: the helping verb must move in front of the subject. Once you see that one movement, every English question follows the same shape.
The word order
| Type | Order | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Yes / No question | Helping verb + subject + main verb | Do you speak English? Is she coming? Have you eaten? |
| WH question | WH word + helping verb + subject + main verb | Where do you live? Why is she crying? How long have you waited? |
| Question about the subject | No helping verb. Keep normal order. | Who called you? What happened? |
The question words
| Word | Asks about | Example | Urdu |
|---|---|---|---|
| What | a thing | What is your name? | کیا |
| Who | a person | Who is your teacher? | کون |
| Whose | belonging to whom | Whose book is this? | کس کا |
| Where | a place | Where do you live? | کہاں |
| When | a time | When does the class start? | کب |
| Why | a reason | Why are you late? | کیوں |
| How | a manner or method | How did you come? | کیسے |
| How many | a countable number | How many books do you need? | کتنے |
| How much | an uncountable amount or a price | How much does it cost? | کتنا |
| How long | a length of time | How long have you studied here? | کتنے عرصے سے |
| How often | frequency | How often do you practise? | کتنی بار |
| Which | a choice from a known set | Which university did you choose? | کون سا |
Short answers
Never answer only yes or no in a speaking test. Repeat the helping verb: it sounds natural and it proves you understood the question.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do you study here? | Yes, I do. / No, I don't. |
| Is he your brother? | Yes, he is. / No, he isn't. |
| Are they coming? | Yes, they are. / No, they aren't. |
| Have you finished? | Yes, I have. / No, I haven't. |
| Did she call? | Yes, she did. / No, she didn't. |
| Can you swim? | Yes, I can. / No, I can't. |
| Will you help me? | Yes, I will. / No, I won't. |
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Where you are going? | Where are you going? | In a question the helping verb comes before the subject. |
| What means this word? | What does this word mean? | English needs does and keeps the main verb in V1. |
| Tell me where is the office. | Tell me where the office is. | Inside a longer sentence the question order disappears and normal order returns. |
| You are coming? | Are you coming? | Rising intonation is spoken English only; in writing, invert. |
Check yourself
Make a question, or fix the word order.
- Turn into a question: She lives in Multan.
Show the answer
Does she live in Multan?
- Turn into a question: They have finished.
Show the answer
Have they finished?
- Ask about the underlined part: He came by bus.
Show the answer
How did he come?
- Ask about the underlined part: The class starts at nine.
Show the answer
When does the class start?
- Fix: Where you are going?
Show the answer
Where are you going?
- Fix: What means this word?
Show the answer
What does this word mean?
- Fix: Tell me where is the office.
Show the answer
Tell me where the office is.
- Short answer: Did she call you? (no)
Show the answer
No, she didn't.