passive questions VS questions with adjectives
Are you allowed to say that?
Are you attracted to me?
Were you born in a barn?
What’s it called?
QUESTIONS
- Usually, a ‘question’ is a sentence that is used to get information.
- Often, the verb is before the subject.
What + HAVE + PRONOUN + got to be
The following grammar pattern does not have an entry in the English Profile. It relates to questions with stranded prepositions which are generally pegged at B2. It also relates to either A1 possession or ownership = have got or A2 modality = have got to do something. The overall complexity of this pattern is at least …
How + ADJECTIVE + is that?
In the English Vocabulary Profile at C2: How + adjective + is that? An iWeb search: 1 HOW COOL IS THAT? 3269 2 HOW AWESOME IS THAT? 1103 3 HOW GREAT IS THAT? 591 4 HOW EASY IS THAT? 533 5 HOW AMAZING IS THAT? 293 6 HOW CRAZY IS THAT? 256 7 HOW CUTE …
Can you | we ? (QUESTION)
At A1 in the category of MODALITY, there are two points: affirmative question form. ‘can’ to make a request. and in the category of QUESTIONS: a limited range of modal verbs + subject + main verb to form ‘yes/no’ *Because these points clash with higher levels, the main difference to note is that all the …
Do you know … (indirect question)
A2 point 20 in the category of PRESENT/simple: indirect questions with ‘Do you know’ + ‘how’, ‘where’, ‘why’, or ‘what’ An iWeb search: 1 DO YOU KNOW HOW TO 6056 2 DO YOU KNOW OF ANY 4276 3 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE 3051 Do you know what the best way to acquire a new language is? PELIC Arabic male level 4 writing class. …
Would you mind?
Here are the most common examples with explanations of ‘would you mind‘: Would you mind if I took your picture? *notice the past form ‘took’ to be polite. Listen to the pronunciation In the English Grammar Profile, point 83 at B1 in the category of MODALITY is defined as: ‘would’ to make polite requests, often in the fixed expression ‘would you …
ANY + comparative
‘Any’ can be used as an adverb to mean ‘at all’ or ‘in some degree’. Here are expert examples: We‘re not gonna discuss it here any further. Keep The Change You‘re not at university any longer. listen How would that end any differently than last time? Captain America In the English Vocabulary Profile, ‘any’ is listed as ADVERB B1 used in questions and negatives to emphasize a comparative adjective or adverb Do you feel any better? …
WHAT IS IT YOU WANT? (relative clause question)
Let’s analyse questions that have relative clauses to give emphasis. So usually, we would say something like: What do we want to ask? What are we trying to find out here? You can see the normal auxiliary verbs ‘be’ and ‘do’ get removed and relative clauses are added in the EXPERT EXAMPLES: What is it that we want …
NEED I SAY MORE? (modality question)
This is an example of modality in a question:
NEED I GO ON?
It could be asked with the meaning: I don’t need to keep talking about this.
past perfect continuous questions
Here are some examples of past perfect continuous questions:
He just did something very unusual. WHAT HAD HE BEEN THINKING?
She was really sick in the taxi. HAD SHE BEEN DRINKING?
BE | HAVE | DO (auxiliary verbs)
Here is another group of A2 English Grammar Profile points that overlap multiple categories. Many of these could be all merged into one point. Point 3 in the category of QUESTIONS: yes/no AUXILIARY ‘BE’ + subject + the continuous A search in NOW corpus for: _VB _P _VVG 1 ARE YOU GOING 38887 2 ARE …
negative interrogative clauses
Here is another difficult point to understand in the EGP because it is so general and there are so many other points that are more specific. A2 Point 11 in CLAUSES: negative interrogative clauses. The English Grammar Profile examples: Don’t you like pizza? (however, this is also listed at B1) Didn’t I tell you? There is not much …
questions with modal verbs
Let’s start with A1 grammar to explain how to form modal verb questions when asking for something. Here is an affirmative declarative sentence: I can get some help. To form a yes/no question with a modal auxiliary verb, invert the subject and the modal verb I can → Can I follow it with the bare …
Can you believe it?
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 74 in MODALITY is defined: ‘can you believe’ to express surprise PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: Can you believe that my poor mother still did not know that she was dying? Mongol female level 4 grammar class. TLC SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE: Can you believe that only in Niger there are one point three million people who are in critical need of food and assistance due to corruption? female Sri Lanka B1 An iWeb search: 1 Can you believe it? 2387 listen 2 …
Could I?
Point 56 in the category of MODALITY: ‘could I’ to seek permission. An iWeb search for: . Could I * * *We have removed anything that is obviously not asking permission but still many entries contain questions related to possibility. 2 . COULD I GET A 93 MMA Conor McGregor asks for Jorge Masvidal …
am|is|are + going + to-INFINITVE (future)
Here are examples of ‘BE going to’ with A1 infinitives: It is going to take time. Listen Are you going to do anything about it? Listen This is a group of people who want to tell you your work is going to live. listen I need a video clip, and you‘re gonna give it to me. listen ‘Snow’ is A2 in the English Vocabulary Profile: The weather forecast said it‘s going to snow tonight. listen In the English Grammar Profile, in the category of FUTURE: B1 Point 31 is defined: ‘be going …
Could you possibly?
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 101 in MODALITY/adverbs is defined: ‘could’ + subject + ‘possibly’ to make requests more polite *This is a very rare structure across corpora for a B1 structure. This point overlaps the more common and general: B1 questions with adverbs: Could you possibly tell me how to fix this? An iWeb search for: . Could I|you possibly * 1 . …
SHALL (question)
Questions with shall are difficult to differentiate across A2 and B1 in the English Grammar Profile. They also overlap across categories. Here we give their examples with the details of the grammar entry. Whether or not advice is being sought after, is at both levels. The main formal difference is that most of the A2 …
negative question
Negative questions usually show the speaker’s expectation that the response should be positive. In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 12 in the category of NEGATION is defined as: negative question forms in main clauses and question tags. This is such a general point that overlaps and clashes against so many other points in the …
past continuous question
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 28 in the category of PAST is defined: past continuous question form Here’s an iWeb search for: was|were _P _VVG *not all these will lead to questions. 1 WERE YOU THINKING 2389 EXPERT EXAMPLE: What were you thinking? stuff.co.nz 2 WAS I GOING 2198 3 WERE THEY THINKING 1716 4 WERE YOU …