Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hi.

  • I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • How can you ask questions in English?

  • Let's talk about it.

  • Today you're gonna dip your toe in the water of questions, so that you can have amazing

  • conversations in English.

  • We can imagine that you're walking beside a swimming pool, and you dip or put your toe

  • in the water, just to test the temperature.

  • Oh, it's cold.

  • That's exactly what we're gonna do today with questions.

  • You're gonna briefly learn the four most common ways to create beautiful questions in English.

  • At the end of this lesson, I want to challenge you to write a comment using all four question

  • forms.

  • Listen carefully.

  • Why should you learn how to ask questions?

  • Well, I've said, many times in the past, including this video about How to Stop Being Shy in

  • English, that when you ask questions, it takes off the pressure from you, because you're

  • asking a question, and the other person is speaking.

  • You can take a moment to take a breath, and you can also learn more about the other person.

  • Let's start with a simple sentence.

  • It's the fall season right now, and because I live in the mountains this is a great time

  • to be here.

  • The trees are red and golden and orange.

  • It's breathtaking.

  • There is nothing better than a gorgeous fall colors and the sun shining.

  • Let's take the sentence, "I like sunny days."

  • We can make four questions.

  • Number one, "Do you like sunny days?"

  • Number two, "What is your favorite weather?"

  • Number three, "You like sunny days, right?"

  • Number four, "You like sunny days?"

  • Let's break down these four different types of questions.

  • The first question, "Do you like sunny days," is using an auxiliary verb.

  • "Do you like sunny days?"

  • The auxiliary verb is do.

  • "Have you been outside yet?"

  • Have is that auxiliary verb.

  • "Would you like me to join you?"

  • Would is that auxiliary verb.

  • These are closed questions.

  • That means that the answers can only be yes or no.

  • "Do you like sunny days?"

  • "Yes."

  • "Have you been outside today?"

  • "No."

  • "Would you like me to join you?"

  • "Yes."

  • Great.

  • There are only two answers to these questions, or are there?

  • If you would like to expand your vocabulary beyond just yes or no you can check out the

  • video that I made 22 to 25 Different Ways to Say Yes and No.

  • You can click on the link up here, and expand your vocabulary for your answers to this auxiliary

  • question.

  • The second way to form a question is with a question word.

  • "What is your favorite season?"

  • Here the question word is what.

  • You probably learned these in your early elementary school English classes ... what, who, where,

  • when, why, how often, how much.

  • This one is an open question.

  • Really, the answer could be anything.

  • It's not just yes.

  • It's not just no.

  • Let's take a look at a [inaudible 00:03:12] example.

  • You might ask, "What did you do in Florida on your vacation?"

  • The question is what.

  • "What did you do in Florida?"

  • You could say, "Well, I went to the beach and it was really beautiful, 'cause I love

  • sunny days.

  • And, it was quite hot, but I enjoyed it."

  • Great.

  • You might ask, "When did you go to Florida?"

  • Here the question word is when.

  • "When did you go to Florida?"

  • Well, the answer is not just yes or no.

  • It's not a closed question.

  • It's anything.

  • "Oh, I went last week.

  • I went three years ago.

  • I'm gonna go there tomorrow."

  • Great.

  • The third way to create questions is by using tag questions.

  • You might ask, "You like sunny days, right?"

  • You can see that the main part of the sentence, you like sunny days ... This is a statement.

  • This is not a question, but we're just adding a tag question on the end, right?

  • When we use these words, we're just trying to verify information.

  • The only time that you use a tag question, is if you think something, but you're not

  • quite sure, so you want to verify that your idea is correct.

  • Maybe you want to invite me to eat some barbecue at your house.

  • You ask me, "You eat meat, right?"

  • You think that I eat meat, but you want to verify that information, to make sure that

  • it's correct.

  • You don't want to invite me to eat barbecue if I don't eat meat.

  • You ask me, "You eat meat, right?"

  • The statement is you eat meat.

  • That's just a statement.

  • It's not a question, but then you're adding the tag word, right?

  • The tag question right, is pretty common, but there are other tag questions that are

  • a little more complicated.

  • I'd like to give you a quick tip about how to use them.

  • Let's go back to that original sentence, "You like sunny days right?"

  • Let's change right, and instead, let's say, "You like sunny days don't you?"

  • Or we could say, "You don't like sunny days do you?"

  • Let's try to look for a pattern here.

  • We can see in that first sentence, "You like sunny days," this is a positive sentence,

  • and then, we're adding a negative tag question ... don't you.

  • What about the second sentence, "You don't like sunny days do you?"

  • We have a negative sentence and a positive tag question.

  • This is the key to great tag questions.

  • When you have a positive sentence, you're gonna add a negative tag question.

  • When you have a negative sentence, you're gonna add a positive tag question.

  • This is just a quick tip about tag questions.

  • If you'd like me to make a full lesson here on YouTube about tag questions, let me know

  • in the comments.

  • The fourth way to form questions in English, is simply by changing your intonation.

  • You could say, "You like sunny days?"

  • Here, the grammar is the same as a simple sentence.

  • "You like sunny days."

  • But, my voice changed in pitch.

  • "You like sunny days?"

  • It went up at the end, to show that I'm asking a question.

  • When do we use intonation in a question?

  • This is mainly when you're showing that you're surprised, or shocked.

  • You might say, with a shocked voice, "That's salt?"

  • Here we have a statement, "That is salt."

  • I know that it's a shocked, surprised question, because of your intonation.

  • "That's salt?"

  • It's going up at the end.

  • Maybe you're surprised, because usually salt is small and fine, but here, I have big pieces

  • of salt.

  • They actually go in a salt lamp that I have.

  • It makes a nice pink color.

  • You might be surprised.

  • "That's salt?"

  • This is a great way to use intonation questions.

  • Or you might ask, "Vanessa's from the US?"

  • Here, we know that you're shocked.

  • You're surprised, because you're using an intonation question.

  • Maybe you thought that my name, Vanessa, is Brazilian, or Italian, or from another country.

  • Nope, I'm from the US.

  • My name is just an international name.

  • You can use this intonation question.

  • "Vanessa's from the US?"

  • Make sure that you lift your voice at the end.

  • Now, it's your turn.

  • I have a big challenge for you.

  • In the comments below, can you make four questions using each of these methods, auxiliary verb

  • questions, question word questions, tag questions, and an intonation question?

  • Maybe you can tell me about food in your country.

  • You might say, "Do you like Turkish food?

  • What is Turkish food?

  • You like Turkish food, right?

  • You like Turkish food?"

  • Great.

  • You're using all four kinds of questions.

  • I hope that you'll be able to integrate these into your speaking, and also hear them as

  • you're listening to other native speakers talk.

  • Thanks so much for learning English with me.

  • I'll see you again next Friday, for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

  • Speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do, to speak confidently and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much.

  • Bye.

Hi.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it