In English, there are two basic types of questions: Yes / No questions and Wh– questions. Yes / No questions are also called closed questions because there are only two possible responses: Yes or No. When forming a Yes / No question, it must include one of these verbs: BE, DO, HAVE, or a modal verb. It is impossible to ask a Yes / No question without one of these verbs.
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| correct | incorrect | |
| Are elections next year? | ||
| Does he want to stay? | ||
| Have the boys eaten? | ||
| Can the dog swim? |
Use the verb BE to ask Yes / No questions about the identity or description of a person, place, or thing.
| question | response | |
| Am I your friend? | Yes. / Yes, you are. / Yes, you are my friend. | |
| Is this a good restaurant? | No. / No, it is not. / No, it is not a good restaurant. | |
| Are these islands Greek? | Yes. / Yes, they are. / Yes, these islands are Greek. | |
| Was his idea interesting? | No. / No, it wasn’t. / No, his idea was not interesting. | |
| Were they happy? | Yes. / Yes, they were. / Yes, they were happy. |
Note that the response can be short (Yes. / No.), or long: Yes or No followed by the subject and verb.
Use the verb BE with a preposition to ask Yes / No questions about a present or past location.
| question | response | |
| Am I at the correct location? | No. / No, you aren’t. | |
| Are the keys under the books? | No. / No, they are not. | |
| Was his house on an island? | Yes. / Yes, it was. | |
| Were the demonstrations in the center of town? | No. / No, they weren’t. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a current activity or situation. This requires the present progressive: BE + (verb+ing).
| question | response | |
| Am I going with you and Tom? | Yes. / Yes, you are. | |
| Is she working today? | No. / No, she isn’t. | |
| Are we seeing a play tomorrow? | Yes. / Yes, we are. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question about a past activity or situation. This requires the past progressive: WAS / WERE + (verb+ing).
| question | response | |
| Was it raining? | Yes. / Yes, it was. | |
| Were they playing? | No. / No, they weren’t. |
Use the verb BE to ask a Yes / No question with the passive voice.
| question | response | |
| Is gold mined in Canada? | Yes. / Yes it is. | |
| Are flowers grown here? | No. / No, they are not. | |
| Was the book read? | Yes. / Yes, it was. |
Use the verb HAVE to ask if somebody has done something or if some action has taken place. Note that these Yes / No questions use the present perfect (HAVE + past participle).
| question | response | |
| Has your brother left? | No. / No, he hasn’t. | |
| Have you driven before? | Yes. / Yes, I have. | |
| Has the party started? | Yes. / Yes, it has. |
Use the verb DO to ask Yes / No questions in order to obtain facts about people, places, or things.
| question | response | |
| Do they smoke? | No. / No, they don’t. | |
| Does it rain here? | Yes. / Yes, it does. | |
| Did the key work? | No. / No, it didn’t. |
Use modal verbs to ask Yes / No questions about possibilities or uncertainties.
| question | response | |
| Can we stay? | Yes. / Yes, we can. / Yes, we can stay. | |
| Could this be true? | Yes. / Yes, it could (be true). | |
| Should they stop? | No. / No, they shouldn’t (stop). | |
| May I help you? | Yes. / Yes you may (help me). |
Remember: When asking Yes / No questions with DO or a modal verb, the main verb remains in the base form (without to).
| correct | incorrect | |
| Do you drink coffee? | ||
| Does she work here? | ||
| Can I go with you? | ||
| Should we email her? |
However, if there are two verbs that follow DO, the second verb remains in the infinitive (with to).
| correct | incorrect | |
| Do you want to drink coffee? | ||
| Does she like to work here? | ||
| Did you need to go home? |
Note that there are several ways to answer Yes / No questions, especially when using contractions.
| question | response |
| Is he busy? | No. |
| No, he isn’t. | |
| No, he’s not. | |
| No, he is not. | |
| No, he isn’t busy. | |
| No, he’s not busy. | |
| No, he is not busy. |
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Related Lessons:
- Introduction to questions
- Wh– questions
- Auxiliary verbs
- Contractions
