Subject Questions

(Wh-) + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? In 1st and 2nd Levels we saw that to make questions in Present Simple and Past simple we needed an auxiliary. The structure of the question was: (Wh-) Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? (Wh-) A + S + I ?

(Wh-) + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? So to make questions in Present Simple and Past simple (except with to be) we have to use an auxiliary. The structure of the question is (Wh-) Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive ? Peter lives in ???? Where does Peter live?

(Wh-) + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? So to make questions in Present Simple and Past simple (except with to be) we have to use an auxiliary. The structure of the question is (Wh-) Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive Peter lives in ???? He bought some ???? yesterday Where does Peter live? What did he buy yesterday?

(Wh-) + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? But what happens when the information we don’t know, the information we ask for is the subject? ??? lives in Paris. Who does live in Paris? but…

(Wh-) + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive? But, what happens when the information we don’t know, the information we ask for is the subject? ??? lives in Paris. Who does live in Paris? WRONG!!!

In the following sentences we know the subject, we just want to know other parts of the sentence, so we’ll use auxiliaries (present simple and past simple) or invert the subject + auxiliary (other tenses). Mary lives in ??? Where does Mary live? Ann went to London in ??? When did Ann go to London They have bought ??? What have they bought? Sue is reading ??? What is Sue reading? I must see ??? today What/Who must you see today? I was talking to ??? Who were you talking to?

But in these ones we don’t know the subject, so we’ll have to make a SUBJECT QUESTION. A SUBJECT QUESTION asks about the subject of the sentence and we don’t change the word order of the sentence, so we don’t need an AUXILIARY : ??? lives in Paris ??? went to London ??? was happening WHO lives in Paris? WHO went to London? WHAT was happening? BUT NEVER WHO does live in Paris? WHO did go to London? Was WHAT happening?

SUBJECT QUESTIONS are questions we ask when we want to know the subject of the sentence, who or what does the action of the verb. They normally start with who, what, which or whose. The never have the auxiliaries do/does/did and they never have subject – auxiliary inversion. When we use who, what, which or whose the verb is usually in 3rd person singular: Who is coming? Who visits you every week? Who has washed the car? What is happening? Which colour comes first?

REMEMBER!!! When you make a subject question, the word order is the same as in the affirmative sentence but instead the missing subject (???) we put the interrogative word (Wh-) : ??? read/reads 3 books a week. Who reads 3 books every week? The verb of the questions always is in 3rd person singular even if you think the subject is plural.

MAKE questions to find out the missing information: ??? happened last week. I saw ??? last week. Mike is meeting ??? tomorrow. ??? is meeting Sue tomorrow. Peter has bought ??? a present. Peter has bought Mary a ??? ??? has bought Mary a present. ??? wrote this long letter. The ??? car costs 10.000€. The red car costs ??? They are reading a ??? ??? are reading a long book.

MAKE questions to find out the missing information: ??? happened last week. What happened last week? I saw ??? last week. Who did you see last week? Mike is meeting ??? tomorrow. Who is Mike meeting tomorrow? ??? is meeting Sue tomorrow. Who is meeting Sue tomorrow? Peter has bought ??? a present. Who has Peter bought a present for? Peter has bought Mary a ??? What has Peter bought to Mary? ??? has bought Mary a present. Who has bought Mary a Present? ??? wrote this long letter. Who wrote this long letter. The ??? car costs 10.000€. Which car costs 10.000€? The red car costs ??? How much does the red car cost? They are reading a ??? What are they reading? ??? are reading a long book. Who is reading a book?

For additional information you can watch the following recording: