QUESTIONS ("YES/NO", "W+H", and "TAGS")

YES/NO QUESTIONS

In English, there are two basic types of questions: Yes / No questions and Wh- questions. Yes / No questions are also called closed questions because there are only two possible responses: Yes or No. When forming aYes / No question, it must include one of these verbs: BE, DO, HAVE, or a modal verb. It is impossible to ask aYes / No question without one of these verbs.

Yes-no questions

Yes or no questions are questions whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no".

How to form yes-no questions

In English, a special word order (Verb Subject Object) is used to form yes-no questions.

Examples:

Affirmative	Yes or No Question
They are American	Are they American?
She is nice	Is she nice?

The rules

1. If the main verb of the sentence is "to be", simply invert the subject and the verb to be:

Examples:

• They are American. — Are they American?
• They are nice. — Are they nice?

2. If the sentence includes a main verb and another or other helping (auxiliary) verb(s), invert the subject and the (first) helping (auxiliary) verb.

Examples:

• They are visiting Paris. — Are they visiting Paris?
• She has done the housework. — Has she done the housework
• Nancy has been working all night long. — Has Nancy been working all night long?
• He will be reading the book. — Will he be reading the book?

3. If the sentence includes a verb which is not the verb "to be" and doesn't include a helping (auxiliary) verb, the transformation is more complex.

a. If the verb is in the present tense, add either do or does and put the main verb in its base form:

• do if the subject is the first person singular, second person singular, first person plural, second person plural and third person plural (I, you, we, they)
  Examples:
  I like apples. — Do you like apples?
  They go to a high school. — Do they go to a high school?
• does if the subject is the third person singular (he, she, it).
  Examples:
  Nancy reads a lot. — Does Nancy read a lot?
  He hates basketball. — Does he hate basketball?

b.If the verb is in the past tense, add did and put the main verb in its base form:
Examples:

• He discovered the truth. — Did he discover the truth?
• She wrote a nice essay. — Did she write a nice essay?
• They did the homework. — Did they do the homework?

Use the verb BE to ask Yes / No questions about the identity or description of a person, place, or thing.

question		response
Am I your friend?		Yes. / Yes, you are. / Yes, you are my friend.
Is this a good restaurant?		No. / No, it is not. / No, it is not a good restaurant.
Are these islands Greek?		Yes. / Yes, they are. / Yes, these islands are Greek.
Was his idea interesting?		No. / No, it wasn’t. / No, his idea was not interesting.
Were they happy?		Yes. / Yes, they were. / Yes, they were happy.

Note that the response can be short (Yes. / No.), or long: Yes or No followed by the subject and verb.

Use the verb BE with a preposition to ask Yes / No questions about a present or past location.

question		response
Am I at the correct location?		No. / No, you aren’t.
Are the keys under the books?		No. / No, they are not.
Was his house on an island?		Yes. / Yes, it was.
Were the demonstrations in the center of town?		No. / No, they weren’t.

Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a current activity or situation. This requires the present progressive: BE + (verb+ing).

question		response
Am I going with you and Tom?		Yes. / Yes, you are.
Is she working today?		No. / No, she isn’t.
Are we seeing a play tomorrow?		Yes. / Yes, we are.

Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a past activity or situation. This requires the past progressive: WAS / WERE + (verb+ing).

question		response
Was it raining?		Yes. / Yes, it was.
Were they playing?		No. / No, they weren’t.

Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question with the passive voice.

question		response
Is gold mined in Canada?		Yes. / Yes it is.
Are flowers grown here?		No. / No, they are not.
Was the book read?		Yes. / Yes, it was.

Use the verb HAVE to ask if somebody has done something or if some action has taken place. Note that theseYes / No questions use the present perfect (HAVE + past participle).

question		response
Has your brother left?		No. / No, he hasn’t.
Have you driven before?		Yes. / Yes, I have.
Has the party started?		Yes. / Yes, it has.

Use the verb DO to ask Yes / No questions in order to obtain facts about people, places, or things.

question		response
Do they smoke?		No. / No, they don’t.
Does it rain here?		Yes. / Yes, it does.
Did the key work?		No. / No, it didn’t.

Use modal verbs to ask Yes / No questions about possibilities or uncertainties.

question		response
Can we stay?		Yes. / Yes, we can. / Yes, we can stay.
Could this be true?		Yes. / Yes, it could (be true).
Should they stop?		No. / No, they shouldn’t (stop).
May I help you?		Yes. / Yes you may (help me).

Remember: When asking Yes / No questions with DO or a modal verb, the main verb remains in the base form(without to).

correct		incorrect
Do you drink coffee?		Do you to drink coffee?
Does she work here?		Does she to work here?
Can I go with you?		Can I to go with you?
Should we email her?		Should we to email her?

However, if there are two verbs that follow DO, the second verb remains in the infinitive (with to).

correct		incorrect
Do you want to drink coffee?		Do you want drink coffee?
Does she like to work here?		Does she like work here?
Did you need to go home?		Did you need go home?

Note that there are several ways to answer Yes / No questions, especially when using contractions.

question	response
Is he busy?	No.
	No, he isn’t.
	No, he’s not.
	No, he is not.
	No, he isn’t busy.
	No, he’s not busy.
	No, he is not busy.

Wh questions (Question Words)

Question words

Question words are also called wh questions because they include the letters 'W' and 'H'.

Question words	Meaning	Examples
who	person	Who's that? That's Nancy.
where	place	Where do you live? In Boston
why	reason	Why do you sleep early? Because I've got to get up early
when	time	When do you go to work? At 7:00
how	manner	How do you go? By car
what	object, idea or action	What do you do? I am an engineer
which	choice	Which one do you prefer? The red one.
whose	possession	Whose is this book? It's Alan's.
whom	object of the verb	Whom did you meet? I met the manager.
what kind	description	What kind of music do you like? I like quiet songs
what time	time	What time did you come home?
how many	quantity (countable)	How many students are there? There are twenty.
how much	amount, price (uncountable)	How much time have we got? Ten minutes
how long	duration, length	How long did you stay in that hotel? For two weeks.
how often	frequency	How often do you go to the gym? Twice a week.
how far	distance	How far is your school? It's one mile far.
how old	age	How old are you? I'm 16.
how come	reason	How come I didn't see you at the party?

Asking questions

1.If you ask about the subject of the sentence, simply add the question word at the beginning:
Example:
James writes good poems. — Who writes good poems?
2.If you ask about the predicate of the sentence (the part of a sentence which contains the verb and gives information about the subject), there are three options:

• If there is a helping (auxiliary) verb that precedes the main verb ( for example: can, is, are, was, were, will, would...), add the question word and invert the subject and the helping (auxiliary) verb.
  Examples:
  He can speak Chinese. — What can he speak?
  They are leaving tonight. — When are they leaving?
• If you ask about the predicate and there is no helping (auxiliary) verb and the verb is "to be", simply add the question verb and invert the subject and the verb.
  Example:
  The play was interesting. — How was the play?
• If there is no helping (auxiliary) verb in the the predicate and the main verb is not "to be", add the auxiliary "do" in the appropriate form.
  Examples:
  They go to the movies every Saturday. — Where do they go every Saturday?
  He wakes up early. — When does he wake up?
  They sent a letter. — What did they send?

QUESTION TAGS 

We use tags in spoken English but not in formal written English.

They are not really questions but are a way of asking the other person to make a comment and so keep the conversation open.

Making a tag is very mechanical. To make a tag, use the first auxiliary. If there is no auxiliary, use do, does or did. With a positive sentence, make a negative tag and with a negative sentence, make a positive tag.

• It's beautiful, isn't it?
• He has been, hasn't he?
• You can, can't you?
• It must be, mustn't it?
• You know him, don’t you?
• He finished it, didn't he?
• He will come, won't he?

• It isn't very good, is it?
• It hasn't rained, has it?
• It can't be, can it?
• Jenny doesn't know James, does she?
• They didn't leave, did they?
• He won’t do it, will he?

Notice these:

• There isn't an ATM here, is there?
• Let's have a cup of coffee, shall we?

To reply, use the same auxiliary:

• It's beautiful, isn't it? ~ Yes, it is. I think it's fabulous.
• It isn't very good, is it? ~ No, it isn't. In fact, it's terrible.

Although, the rules are very simple and mechanical, in order to use them easily in conversation, they have to be automatic. So you need to hear and practice them very often.

Source :

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-yes-no-questions.php

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/learn-english/grammar/questions-yes-no/

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-wh-questions.php

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/questionstags/menu.php