The interrogative form (simple present)

PRELUDE:

Sometimes you find yourself able to understand your interlocutor and you can even answer his questions, but you face some difficulty when you want to take the initiative of asking some questions which doesn’t help the communication flow.

PURPOSES: 

How to form a question in the simple present tense?

What kind of structures should be applied to form a question?

HOW:

There are two basic cases:

1. To be:        

            Example:          He is assertive.

                Question:      Is he assertive?

                Answer:        – yes, he is.

                                         – no, he is not.

      Rule:     Invert the subject and verb to be.

In this example the answer is direct and short (yes or no), but when we use                    an interrogative adjective we keep the same structure and we place the                            interrogative adjective at the beginning of the sentence.

Examples:   – Where are you from?

                       – Why are you worried?

                       – What are your weaknesses?

2. The other verbs:

                              subject        verb        object

     Example 1:    They           play        soccer     on Sundays.

         Form:    Do   +    subject    +    main verb   +   object ……?

    Example 2:         They           play       soccer     on Sundays.

        Form:           Does  +   subject  +  main verb +  object ……?

    Note: for the third singular person we use the modal “does” instead of “do”.