✨ Lesson 13: Question Forms - Review and Expansion
In our B1 lessons, we have learned many different verb tenses and modal verbs. Today, we will do a review1 of how to form questions correctly in all these tenses.
The good news is that almost all questions in English follow one simple pattern!
The Golden Rule of Questions: Inversion with a Helping Verb
To make a question, we almost always use inversion2. This means we swap the position of the subject and the first helping verb3 (also called an auxiliary verb).
- Statement: Subject + Helping Verb + Main Verb...
- Question: Helping Verb + Subject + Main Verb...?
If a positive statement has no helping verb (like in the Present Simple and Past Simple), we must add one (do, does, or did) to make the question.
Question Forms Across Tenses
This table shows the pattern for all the tenses we have learned.
| Tense / Verb Type | Statement | Question Form |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple ('be') | She is a doctor. | Is she a doctor? |
| Present Simple (Action) | He works here. | Does he work here? |
| Past Simple ('be') | They were late. | Were they late? |
| Past Simple (Action) | You went to the market. | Did you go to the market? |
| Present Continuous | He is sleeping. | Is he sleeping? |
| Future ('be going to') | She is going to travel. | Is she going to travel? |
| Future ('will') | They will arrive soon. | Will they arrive soon? |
| Modals ('can', 'should') | You can swim. | Can you swim? |
🧠 Practice Quiz: Make the Question
Change these statements into Yes/No questions.
- She works in a hotel in Siem Reap.
→ Does she work in a hotel in Siem Reap? - They visited the temples yesterday.
→ Did they visit the temples yesterday? - He is learning English.
→ Is he learning English? - We will have dinner at 7 PM.
→ Will we have dinner at 7 PM? - You can recommend a good restaurant.
→ Can you recommend a good restaurant?
📝 Homework: What's the Question?
Write a logical question for each answer.
Example: Answer: Yes, I went to the market this morning.
Question: Did you go to the market this morning?
1. Answer: No, she doesn't like spicy food.
→ Question: ___________________________________?
2. Answer: Yes, they were at home last night.
→ Question: ___________________________________?
3. Answer: Yes, I can help you.
→ Question: ___________________________________?
(Example Answers: 1. Does she like spicy food? 2. Were they at home last night? 3. Can you help me?)
Vocabulary Glossary
- Review: (Noun) - ការរំលឹក (kaa rum'lœ̆k) - An act of studying something again to remember it. ↩
- Inversion: (Noun) - កិច្ចបញ្ច្រាស (kĕch'bânh'chras) - The act of changing the normal position of words, especially swapping the subject and helping verb to form a question. ↩
- Helping Verb: (Noun) - កិរិយាស័ព្ទជំនួយ (kĕ're'ya'sap chumnuŏy) - A verb (like 'do', 'did', 'be', 'will') that helps the main verb. ↩