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Present Tense - Short Answers English Grammar Rules Short Answers With Do and Does
Present Tense - Short Answers English Grammar Rules Short Answers With Do and Does
In questions that use do/does it is possible to give short answers, to direct questions as follows:
Does she want to come? Yes, she does. No, she doesn't.
In most cases, it is possible to give a short answer or a long answer to a question in English. In
casual conversation, short answers are much more common than long answers. Long answers are
for more formal conversations or if you want to give more information in your response.
Examples
If you look at the examples above, you will notice that the answer uses the first verb in the
question (even if it is an auxiliary verb). This is a common characteristic of short answers in English.
Contrast that to long answers to each of those questions:
You will notice that long answers often sound repetitive. A long answer to one of these questions
would be considered very formal in English, and in most cases, unnecessary.
Remember, when you are accepting or refusing something to say 'yes, please' or 'no, thank you'. It
is much more common to give short answers to questions like these:
English answers, as well as most other languages, do not have to be full sentences. It would not
be natural for the answer to be identical to the question. For example:
This type of conversation rarely occurs between 2 native English speakers. What would be natural
is the following:
This is called a “short answer.” But there is a problem that many English students face. What verb
should you use in the short answer? In the above conversation, the question uses the verb “go.”
But the verb in the short answer is “did.” The difficulty is deciding which verb to use in the short
answer. Here are 2 more examples:
Both of the above conversations contain the verb “have,” but only one uses it in the short answer.
Why? It’s simple. We have a great way to remember the rule. Take the quiz below and then look
at the answers and complete explanation below.
Questions
WH - Questions
WH – QUESTIONS
What else? - ¿Qué más? How long? - ¿Cuánto tiempo? ¿Qué longitud?
Which? - ¿Qué? ¿Cuál? ¿Cuáles? How long ago? - ¿Hace cuánto tiempo?
How else? - ¿De qué otra manera? How soon? - ¿Cuán pronto?
Where? - ¿Dónde? ¿Adónde? How far? - ¿A qué distancia? ¿Cuán lejos?
Where else? - ¿Dónde más? How tall? - ¿Qué estatura? ¿Cuán alto?
Whom? - ¿A quién? ¿A quiénes? How heavy? - ¿Qué peso? ¿Cuán pesado?
Whose? - ¿De quién? ¿De quiénes? How thick? - ¿Qué espesor? ¿Cuán grueso?
WH Questions Structure
WH questions in the simple present use “do” or “be”. Take a look at the structure for each of these
verbs.
Do
Be
WH + BE + SUBJECT
I am from India.
My name is Jacob.
Complete:
1., _________ do you live?
It is on Saturday night.
It is on 4th Avenue.
4. B: Why not?
CONVERSATION II:
2. B: Why is that?
3. A: I warned her about her new boyfriend. She didn't listen to me.
4. B: What happened?
5. A: I gave her $1,000 for her birthday. I told her to spend it on herself.
A. Yes, I did.
B. Yes, I have.
D. Yes, I went.
A. Yes, I am studying
B. No, I amn’t
C. Yes, I are.
D. Yes, I am.
4. Would you have gone with Tim if you had enough money?
D. Yes, I have.
B. Yes, I graduated.
C. Yes, I did.
6. Before you gave Greg the money, had you seen the car that you wanted to buy?
A. Yes, I did.
B. Yes, I had.
D. Yes, I saw.