Yes/No And Wh Questions

A sentence expressed in a form which requires an answer. Two common types of questions exist: Yes-No questions and WH-questions.

Examples are:

• Are you coming with us?
• Who is she talking to?

Other types of questions also exist.

For example, the question Is it a bird or a plane? is a polar question.

The examples given above are all direct questions.

English also allows utterances which have the force of questions, even though they have the form of statements.

Example:

• You are coming with us? (uttered with rising intonation)

Tag question

An expression like isn’t it? or don’t you? (consisting of auxiliary verb + pronoun subject) put on to the end of a sentence.

• It is a nice day, isn’t it?
• She doesn’t care, does she?

Question tags are used to check whether something is true, or to ask for agreement. We use a negative question tag after an affirmative sentence.

You are the new secretary, aren’t you?

We use a non-negative question tag after a negative sentence.

You aren’t the new secretary, are you?