Lesson 1A
Questions
Yes / No Questions
A sentence has a subject and a verb. (Hold your mouse pointer over a highlighteda highlighted word word to see its type.)
Marysubject dancesverb.
(subject) (verb)
To ask a yes / no question, we use do, does, or did.
Does Mary dance?
Do Mary’s friends dance?
Did Mary dance when she was a child?
Sometimes a sentence has a helping verb, too. (Hold your mouse pointer over a highlighteda highlighted word word to see its type.)
Marysubject canhelping verb dancemain verb.
(subject) (helping verb) (main verb)
When the sentence has a helping verb, we do not use do to ask a yes / no question. Instead, we change the word order. (Hold your mouse pointer over a highlighteda highlighted word word to see its type.)
Marysubject canhelping verb dancemain verb. 
Canhelping verb Marysubject dancemain verb?
(subject) (helping verb) (main verb) (helping verb) (subject) (main verb)
We also change the word order to ask yes / no questions with the verb “to be”.
Marysubject is“to be” a dancer. Is“to be” Marysubject a dancer?
(subject) (“to be”) (“to be”) (subject)
Look at the statements and questions below. We change the statements’ word order to ask questions. Click to hear the statements and questions.
Statement Subject + helping verb + main verb. |
Yes / No Question Helping verb + subject + main verb? |
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