Wh- Question Words &amp; Question Order

Wh- Question Words (Medium)

medium

Practice which, whose, how much/many with contextual clues

20 questions • 10 min

Wh- Question Words (Hard)

hard

Advanced wh- words in formal, academic, and ambiguous contexts

20 questions • 12 min

Question Order (Easy)

easy

Form questions from jumbled words with present simple and 'be'

20 questions • 10 min

Question Order (Medium)

medium

Question formation with past simple, continuous, and modals

20 questions • 12 min

Question Order (Hard)

hard

Complex questions with perfect tenses, passives, and subject questions

20 questions • 15 min

How + Adjective (Basic)

easy

How much, how many, how often, how long, how far, how old

20 questions • 10 min

How + Adjective (Advanced)

medium

How come, how about, how + adjective combinations

20 questions • 12 min

Embedded Questions (Medium)

medium

Convert direct questions into indirect/embedded questions

20 questions • 12 min

Embedded Questions (Hard)

hard

Advanced embedded questions with complex structures

20 questions • 15 min

What are wh- question words in English?

Wh- question words are interrogative words used to ask open-ended questions. Unlike yes/no questions, wh- questions require specific information in the answer. There are eight main wh- words, each asking about a different type of information. Research shows that "what" and "how" account for over 60% of wh- questions in everyday English.

Who / Whose / Whom

Person, possession, object

"Who is your teacher?"

What / Which

Thing, choice from options

"What do you do for a living?"

Where

Place, location, direction

"Where did you grow up?"

When / How long

Time, duration, frequency

"When does the meeting start?"

Wh- Question Words Quick Reference - who, what, where, when, why, how, which, whose

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What is the correct word order for English questions?

English questions follow a specific word order pattern that differs from statements. The key rule is subject-verb inversion: the auxiliary verb comes before the subject. This is one of the most common areas of difficulty for ESL learners, as many languages do not require word order changes for questions.

Yes/No Questions

Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb + Rest

"Do you like coffee?" "Is she coming?" "Can they swim?"

Wh- Questions

Wh-word + Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb

"Where do you live?" "What is she reading?"

Subject Questions (No Inversion)

Wh-word + Main Verb + Rest (no auxiliary needed)

"Who called you?" "What happened?"

English Question Order Rules - word order patterns for forming questions

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When do you use do, does, and did in questions?

The auxiliary verbs "do", "does", and "did" are used to form questions in present simple and past simple tenses. They are NOT used with "be", modal verbs (can, will, should), or when the wh- word is the subject of the question.

Auxiliary	Tense	Example
Do	Present (I/you/we/they)	Where do you work?
Does	Present (he/she/it)	What does she study?
Did	Past (all subjects)	When did they arrive?

Important: After "does" and "did", use the BASE form of the verb: "What does she study?" (not "studies"). "Where did you go?" (not "went").

What are subject questions and why are they different?

Subject questions occur when the wh- word replaces the subject of the sentence. Unlike object questions, they do NOT use auxiliary verbs (do/does/did) and follow statement word order. This is a frequent source of errors for learners.

Subject Questions

Who/What = the subject (no auxiliary)

"Who lives here?" (Someone lives here)

"What happened?" (Something happened)

Object Questions

Who/What = the object (needs auxiliary)

"Who do you live with?" (You live with someone)

"What did she say?" (She said something)

How do you use "how" with adjectives and adverbs?

"How" combines with adjectives and adverbs to ask about specific quantities, degrees, or measurements. These combinations are extremely common in everyday English: "how much", "how many", "how long", "how old", "how far", and "how often" are among the most frequently used question phrases.

How much

Uncountable quantity / price

How many

Countable quantity

How often

Frequency

How long

Duration / length

How far

Distance

How old

Age

When should you use "which" instead of "what" in questions?

The choice between "which" and "what" depends on whether the set of options is limited or open. Use "which" when choosing from a defined, small group. Use "what" when possibilities are unlimited. In practice, native speakers often use "what" even with limited options in casual speech.

Which (limited choices)

"Which one do you want, tea or coffee?"

"Which bus goes to the centre?"

What (open-ended)

"What is your favourite food?"

"What do you want to be?"

How do embedded (indirect) questions work?

Embedded questions are questions placed inside another sentence. The key difference is that they use statement word order (subject before verb), not question word order. They are considered more polite than direct questions and are common in formal or professional contexts.

Direct: "Where is the station?"

Embedded: "Do you know where the station is?"

Direct: "What time does the shop close?"

Embedded: "Can you tell me what time the shop closes?"

Direct: "Is she coming?" (yes/no)

Embedded: "I wonder if she is coming."

Common mistake: "Do you know where is the station?" should be "Do you know where the station is?" The embedded part uses statement order (subject + verb), not question order.

What are the most common question formation mistakes?

ESL learners commonly make predictable errors when forming questions. Research into learner corpora shows that word order errors account for over 40% of question formation mistakes, followed by auxiliary verb errors (30%) and subject-verb agreement issues (15%).

Where you live?

Where do you live?

Missing auxiliary "do"

What does she likes?

What does she like?

Use base form after "does"

Who did call you?

Who called you?

Subject questions don't use "did"

Can you tell me where is the bank?

Can you tell me where the bank is?

Embedded questions use statement word order

How do you form negative questions in English?

Negative questions express surprise, confirm expectations, or make suggestions. They are formed by adding "not" to the auxiliary verb. In spoken English, the contracted form is almost always used: "Don't you...?" rather than "Do you not...?"

Surprise / Confirmation

"Don't you like chocolate?" (I thought you did!)

Suggestions

"Why don't we go to the cinema?"

Rhetorical

"Isn't this a beautiful day?"

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Statistics and research cited on this page:

•
Biber et al. (1999) - Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Corpus analysis showing "what" and "how" account for over 60% of wh-questions in conversation; "why" is more common in spoken than written English.
•
Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman (1999) - The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course. Research on question formation errors showing word order accounts for 40%+ of learner mistakes.
•
Cambridge English Corpus - Data on embedded question usage patterns, showing "Do you know" and "Can you tell me" are the most common introductory phrases across proficiency levels.Cambridge Corpus
•
Quirk et al. (1985) - A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Reference grammar distinguishing subject and object questions, and the rules for auxiliary insertion.
•
COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) - Frequency data for question word usage patterns across registers (spoken, fiction, academic, news).COCA

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