Direct and indirect

questions
Direct questions
We have studied how to ask questions in English with “do” ( = question form):

- How do you go to school?

- How often do you exercise?
- Which one do you like the best?
- …

Structure

(Int. Pron.) Aux. DO Personal Pronoun Main verb

…

How does she

go to school?
Word order in direct questions
Notice how the word order changes from the question to the affirmative form:

Q: How does she go to school?

Aux S V O
(order = Aux S V O ?)

A: She rides a bus.

S V O
(order = S V O).
Exceptions in word order for question forms
The Aux - S - V - O order is only valid for verbs that take “do” as an auxiliary,
e.g.:

Do you go out to eat often?

However, not all verbs take “do” as an auxiliary -- do you know what they are?
Word order for questions with “be” and “have got”
The verb to be and have got phrase have a different syntax:

Is she your grandmother?

Are you ready?
V “be” S NP

Have you got any eggs?

Has he got any homework for
tomorrow?
V “have” S “got” O
Differences in word order
Notice the differences between these two questions:

What do you normally eat at lunch? || What is wrong

with you!?

What do you want from me? || Who is

that guy?

Pron V-aux S V Pron

V NP

- The wh-questions on the left-hand side follow the usual question form
structure (Wh-pronoun, V-Aux, S V O), but
Object questions
The word order in a questions changes depending on the syntactic function of
the wh-pronoun:
- What do you normally eat for lunch? → I usually eat
pasta.

In the above sentence, the wh- pronoun is asking information about the object of
the answer:
What do you eat? = I eat (what?) = pasta
S V O

This is called an object question. An object question follows the usual structure:
Pronoun + V(aux) + S + V + O
Subject questions
What is wrong with you!? // Who is that guy?

In the above sentences, instead, the wh-pronoun is asking about the subject of
the answer:

Who is that guy? → (Who?) = He is my

boyfriend.
Wh V NP
S V NP

This is called a subject question. Unlike object questions, in subject questions

the word order is the same as the answer (check above).
Homework
Smart grammar: studiare pag 88 (“Gli interrogativi”)

Svolgere tutti gli esercizi a pag 88-89. (N. 3 e 6 scritti sul quaderno).
Direct and indirect questions
These we have just seen are called direct questions, because they require a
direct, straightforward answer.

- How often do you go to school? → Five times a week.

However, this is not the only possible way to ask a question: you can ask indirect
questions, especially if you want to be polite. Notice the difference:

Direct question: How often do you go to school?

Indirect questions: Can you tell me how often you go to school?
Do you know how often she goes to
the gym?