Yes/No questions, Wh- questions, and everything in between.
Yes/No Questions
Structure: Auxiliary + subject + verb
Do you like coffee?
Starts with an auxiliary: do/does/did/is/are/have.
Wh- Questions
Structure: Wh-word + auxiliary + subject + verb
Where do you live?
Who, what, where, when, why, how: the question word goes first.
Subject Questions
Structure: Wh-word replaces the subject, no auxiliary
Who called you? (not “Who did call you?”)
When asking about the subject itself, skip the auxiliary.
Tag Questions
Structure: statement + short tag
It’s cold today, isn’t it?
A positive statement gets a negative tag, and vice versa.
Negative Questions
Structure: negative auxiliary + subject + verb
Don’t you like coffee?
Often expresses surprise, or expects agreement rather than new information.
Indirect Questions
Structure: polite phrase + if/wh-word + normal word order
Could you tell me where the station is?
Softer and more formal than a direct question: no inversion after the phrase.
How Questions
Structure: how + adjective/adverb
How old are you? How often do you travel?
“How” combines with many words to ask about degree, frequency, distance, and more.
Echo Questions
Structure: statement word order, question word replaces the surprising part
You did WHAT?
Repeating part of what someone said, in disbelief or to ask them to clarify.
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