Lesson 55: Transforming Sentences using Questions

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Simple sentence may also be transformed from declarative statements into questions.

(Review: A declarative sentence or declaration, the most common type, commonly makes a statement: I am going home.)


In the given sentence "Justin writes fiction stories for the science journal." We may produced the following questions:

• Does he write feature stories for the science journal?

• What does Justin write?

• Who writes for the science journal?

• Are the feature stories written by Justin?

• Doesn't Justin write feature articles?

• Justin writes feature articles, doesn't he?

• Justin does write stories, doesn't he?

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Three ways to form questions from basic sentences are discussed here.


1. Move a linking or auxilliary verb (is, are, was ,were . . .) to the beginning of the sentence.

• a. Her partner is suspicious. -Is her partner suspicious?

• b. They have been treated unfairly. -Have they been treated unfairly?

• c. Justin did give his daddy a present. -Did Justin give his daddy a present?

2. Add an interrogative verb (how, when, why. . . ).

• a. Her partner is suspicious. -Why is her partner suspicious?

• b. They have been treated unfairly. -How were they treated unfairly?

• c. Justin did give his daddy a present. - When did Justin give his daddy a present?

3. Transform a basic sentence with an object or object complement by substituting an interrogative pronoun (who, what, whose . . . ) for the object or complement and moving the pronoun to the beginning of the sentence.

• a. Her partner is suspicious. -What is his partner? ( the object 'suspicious' was replaced by the interrogative pronoun 'What'. And then, the interro. pronoun is moved to the beginning of the sentence.)
  

• b. They have been treated unfairly. -How were they treated? ( the object 'unfairly' was replaced by the interrogative pronoun 'How'. And then, the interro. pronoun is moved to the beginning of the sentence).

• c. Justin did give his daddy a present. - What did Justin give his daddy? (the object 'present' was replaced by the interrogative pronoun 'What'. And then, the interro. pronoun is moved to the beginning of the sentence.

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Exercise:


Formulate questions to the following sentences using the 3 ways discussed above.

• I sang a romantic song.

• He run to his office hurriedly.

• Their parents are good people.

• We finished the game easily.

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~end of lesson~