Englishtown
Englishtown
Free
English for New Immigrants !
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Grammar
for foreigner:
ESL-52
ESL-53
Dictionary:
Ccontents: １．Present
Time 2.
Past Time 3.
Future Time
4.
The Present Perfect and The Past Perfect
5.
Asking Questions 6.
Nouns and Pronouns
7. Modal
Auxiliaries
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5-1 Yes/No Questions and Short Answers |
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Yes/No Question |
Short answer(+ Long Answer) |
A
yes/no question that can be answered by yes or no. In an affirmative short answer (yes), a helping verb is NOT contracted with the subject. In (c): Incorrect: Yes, I've. In (d): Incorrect: Yes, it's In (e): Incorrect: Yes, he'll The spoken emphasis in a short answer is on the verb. |
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(a)
Do you like tea? Yes,
I do. (I like tea.) |
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(b)
Did Sue call?
Yes, she did. (she called.) No, she didn't (she didn't call.) |
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(c)
Have you met Al? Yes,
I have. (I have met Al.) No, I haven't (I haven't met Al.) |
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(d)
Is it raining?
Yes, it is. (It's raining.) No, it isn't. (It isn't raining.) |
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(e)
Will Rob be here? Yes, he
will. (Rob will be here.) No, he won't. (Rob won't be here.) |
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| 5-2 Information Questions | ||
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Question |
Helping |
Subject |
Main Verb |
(Rest of Sentence) |
The
same subject-verb word orders is used in both yes/no and
information questions. In (i) and (j): Main verb be in simple present and simple past (am, is, are, was, were) precedes the subject. It has the same position as helping verb. |
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(a) Does Ann
live in Montreal? |
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(k) Who
came to dinner? (j) What happened yesterday? |
When the question word (who or what) is the subject of the question usual question word order is not used. No form of do is used. | |||||
| 5-3 Where, why, when, and What Time | ||||||
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Question |
Answer |
A question with what time asks about time on a clock. A question with when can be answered by any time expression, as in the sample answers in (d) |
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(a)
Where did you go? Paris. |
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5-4 Questions With Who, Who(m), and What |
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Question |
Answer |
In
(a): Who is used s the subject (s) of a
question. In (b): Who(m) is used as the object (o) in a question. Whom is used in formal English. In everyday spoken English, who is usually used instead of whom: Formal: Whom did you see? Informal: Who did you see? |
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S S (a) Who came? Someone came. O S O (b) Who(m) did you see? I saw someone. |
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S S (c) What happened? Something happened. O S O (d) What did you see? I saw something . |
What can be used as either the subject or the object
in a question. Notice in (a) and (c): When who or whom is used as the subject of a question, usual question word order is not used; no form of do is used in (a). |
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| 5-5 Using What + A Form of Do | |||
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Question |
Answer |
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(a)
What does Bob do every
morning? He goes to class. (b) What did you do yesterday? I went downtown. (c) What is Anna doing (right now)? She's studying. (d) What are you going to do tomorrow? I'm going to go to the beach. (e) What do you want to do tonight? I want to go to a movie. (f) What would you like to do tomorrow? I would like to visit Jim. (g) What will you do tomorrow? I'll go downtown. (h) What should I do about my headache? You should take an aspirin. |
What + a form of do is used to ask question about activities. Examples of form of do: am doing, will do, are going to do, did, etc. | ||
| 5-5 Using What Kind Of | |||
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Boots. Sandals. (a) What kind of shoes did you buy? Tennis shoes Loafers. High heels. |
What
kind of asks for information about a specific type (a specific
kind) in a general category. In (a): general category = shoes specific kinds = boots, sandals... |
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| (b) What kind of fruit do you like best? Apples. |
In
(b): General category = fruit specific kinds = apples, bananas.... |
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5-6 Using Which |
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(a)
TOM: May I borrow a pen from you? ANN: Sure. I have two pens. This pen has black ink. That pen has red ink. Which pen do you want ? OR Which one do you want ? OR Which do you want ? (b) SUE: I like these earrings, and I like those, too. BOB: Which (earrings/ones) are you going to buy? SUE: I think I'll get these. |
In
(a): Ann uses which (not what) because she
wants Tom to choose. Which is used when the speaker wants someone to make a choice, when the speaker is offering alternatives: this one or that one; these or those. |
| Which can be used with either singular or plural nouns. | |
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(c)
JIM: Here's a photo of my daughter's class. |
Which can be used to ask about people as well as things. |
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(d)
SUE: My aunt gave me some money for my birthday. I'm going to take it with me to the mall. BOB: What are you going to buy with it? SUE: I haven't decided yet. |
In (d): The question doesn't involve choosing from a particular group of items, so Bob uses what, not which. |
| 5-7 Using Whose | |
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(a)
Whose (book) is this?
It's John's (book). |
Whose asks about possession. Notice in (a): The speaker of the question may omit the noun (book) if the meaning is clear to the listen. |
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(d)
Who's that ? Mary Smith. (e) Whose is that? Mary's. |
Who's and whose have the same pronunciation. Who's =a contraction of Who is. Whose = asks about possession. |
| 5-8 Using How | |
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I drove./By car. |
How has many uses. One use of how is to ask about means (ways) of transportation. |
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(b)
How old are you?
Twenty-one. (c) How tall is he? About six feet. (d) How big is your apartment? It has three rooms. (e) How sleepy are you? Very sleepy. (f) How hungry are you? I'm starving. (g) How soon will you be ready? In five minutes. (h) How well does he speak English? Very well. (i) How quickly can you get here? I can get there in 30 minutes. |
How is often used with adjectives (old, big) and adverbs (well, quickly). |
| 5-9 Using How often | |
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Every day. once a week. (a) How often do you go shipping? About twice a week. Every other day or so. Three times a month. |
How often asks about frequency. |
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(b)
How many times a day do you eat? three or four. How many times a week do you go shopping? How many times a month do you go to the office? How many times a year do you take a vacation? |
Three or four. Tow. Once. Once or twice. |
| 5-9 Using How Far | |
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(a)
it is 289 miles form St. Louis to
Chicago. (b) It is 289 miles from St. Louis to Chicago. to Chicago from St. Louis. |
The
most common way of expressing distance: It is + distance +from/to +to /from In (b): All four expressions with from and to have the same meaning. |
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(c)
How far is it from St. Louis to Chicago? 289
miles. (d) How far do you live from school? Four blocks. |
How far is used to ask questions about distance. |
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5-10 Length of Time: It + Take and How long |
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It + Take + (Someone ) + Length of time + Infinitive |
It + take is often used with time words and an
infinitive to express length of time, as in (a)
and (b). An infinitive= to + the simple from of a verb. In (a): to cook is an infinitive. |
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(a)
It takes 20 minutes to
cook rice. (b) It took Al two hours to drive to work. |
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(c)
How long does it take to cook rice? -- 20
minutes. (d) How long did it take Al to drive to work today? -- Two hours. (e) How long did you study last night? --Four hours. (f) How long will you be in Hong Kong?--Ten days (g) How many days will you be in Hong Kong? |
How long asks about length of time. | |
| 5-11 More Questions With How | ||
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(a)
How do you spell "coming? C-o-m-i-n-g. (b) How are you getting along? Great. (c) How are you doing Fine. (d) How's it going? Okay. or So-so. |
In (b),(c),
and (d): How is your life? Is you life okay? DO you have any
problems? Note: (d) is also used in greetings: Hi, Bob, How's it going? |
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How do you feel?
Terrific!
Okay.
Awful .
How are you feeling? Wonderful! Fine! Not so good! |
The questions in (g) ask about health or abut general emotional state. | |