Questions: Interrogative Sentences and Question Formation

Question 1

A student wants to form a yes/no question from the statement 'Maria works at the hospital.' Which version is grammatically correct?

• A. Works Maria at the hospital?
• B. Does Maria work at the hospital?
• C. Do Maria works at the hospital?
• D. Maria does works at the hospital?

Answer: (B)

English cannot invert a bare main verb, so the dummy auxiliary 'does' is inserted to carry tense. Once 'does' carries the tense, the main verb reverts to its base form ('work,' not 'works'). Option A (*Works Maria?) is ungrammatical — main verbs cannot invert in English. Option C has the right auxiliary but fails to drop the tense inflection from the main verb.

Question 2

A student writes: 'Who did call you last night?' A classmate says it should be 'Who called you last night?' Which is correct, and why?

• A. 'Who did call you last night?' — wh-questions always require the auxiliary 'did'
• B. 'Who called you last night?' — when the question word is the subject, no inversion or dummy auxiliary is needed
• C. 'Who called you last night?' — but only because 'called' is in the past tense
• D. Both are correct; 'did' is optional for added emphasis

Answer: (B)

When the wh-word functions as the grammatical subject ('who' is the one who called), subject-auxiliary inversion does not apply. 'Who called you?' follows normal subject-verb order with no inserted auxiliary. By contrast, 'Who did you call?' requires 'did' because 'who' is the object and 'you' is the subject. The rule: inversion applies only when the wh-word is NOT the subject.

Question 3

In the question 'What did you eat for dinner?', the word 'what' is the grammatical subject of the sentence.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

'What' is the grammatical object — it names the thing eaten. 'You' is the subject. Because 'what' is in the object position, subject-auxiliary inversion applies and 'did' is inserted. If 'what' were the subject (as in 'What fell off the shelf?'), no inversion and no dummy auxiliary would be needed.

Question 4

A yes/no question in English always requires an auxiliary verb, even if the corresponding statement contains no auxiliary.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: True

English question formation requires moving an auxiliary before the subject. When a statement has no auxiliary (e.g., 'She sings'), the main verb cannot invert directly (*'Sings she?'). The dummy auxiliary 'do' must be inserted to carry tense: 'Does she sing?' This insertion is obligatory — there is no grammatical alternative when no real auxiliary exists.

Question 5

Why does English insert 'do' to form some questions (as in 'Do you like it?') but not others (as in 'Are you ready?')? What determines when 'do' is needed?

Model answer: 'Do' is inserted only when the declarative sentence has no auxiliary verb. English questions are formed by moving an auxiliary before the subject — if none exists, 'do' is supplied as a dummy auxiliary to carry tense. When an auxiliary already exists (is, are, will, can, etc.), it inverts directly without 'do.'

The underlying principle: English questions move an auxiliary, never a main verb. 'Are you ready?' already has 'are.' 'You like it' has no auxiliary, so 'do' is supplied: 'Do you like it?' The form of 'do' carries the tense (do/does for present, did for past), while the main verb drops its tense inflection.