In this lesson, we will focus on the different types of questions in the English language.
A question is an interrogative expression often used to find out or confirmation information. There are a lot of different types of questions in English such as
Questions are formed by placing an auxiliary verb in front of the subject in a sentence.
Statement: They are reading
Question: Are they reading
Statement: The businessmen travel to a lot of different countries every year.
Question: Do the businessmen travel to a lot of different countries every year?
Basically, there are two main categories of questions: Wh-word and Yes/No questions.
The Different Types of Questions in English
| # | Type | Example Sentence | |
| 1. | Object | How many people did you invite to the production meeting yesterday? | |
| 2. | (Yes/No) | Did you invite anyone to the production meeting yesterday? | |
| 3. | Subject | Who invited the suppliers to the production meeting yesterday? | |
| 4. | Duration | How long did the production meeting last yesterday? | |
| 5. | Time | What did you do after the production meeting finished? | |
| 6. | Modality | Should we invite the suppliers to the production meeting? (advice) | |
| 7. | Get | What time did you get to the production meeting yesterday? (arrive) | |
| 8. | Indirect | Could you tell me what time the meeting started? | |
| 9. | Open-ended | What are the production meetings like on Wednesdays? | |
| 10. | Closed-ended | Where do you have the production meeting every Wednesdays? | |
| 11. | Echo | A: We covered all ten items. B: You covered how many items? | |
| 12. | Follow-up | When will you send out the minutes for the production meeting? | |
| 13. | General Interest | How are you finding the production meetings on Wednesdays? | |