1. Information (Wh-) questions Present Tense: Be
Questions that ask for information
Click to advance slides.
Robert F. van Trieste
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

2. Why are Information questions called Wh-questions?
They are called wh-questions because they usually use a question word that begins with the letters wh.
Who
What
Where
Why
When
Which
Add whose to list
How far, How old, How difficult, etc.
However, one important wh-word does not begin with the letters wh.
How
How much/many
How often

3. Word order Present Tense be Information Questions
Wh-word
am/ is/ are
Subject
Rest of sentence
When is
the party?
Where
are
you
from?
Who
those girls
over there?
What
your student number?

4. Information question word order versus statement word order: verb be
Wh-word
am/ is/ are
Subject
Rest of sentence
What is
your student number?
Subject
am/ is/ are
Rest of sentence
My student number is M

5. Information question word order versus statement word order: Present Tense verb be
Wh-word
am/ is/ are
Subject
Rest of sentence
Why
are
the girls
late?
Subject
am/ is/ are
Rest of sentence
The girls
are
late because they live in Caguas.

6. Information question word order when subject is unknown: be
Wh-word
am/ is/ are
Rest of sentence
What is
on the blackboard?
Subject
am/ is/ are
Rest of sentence
Today’s homework is
on the blackboard.

7. Answer the question 1 What are those? Those are bananas.
Click on slide to see answer.
Those are bananas.

8. Answer the question 2 What is on the branch? A bird is on the branch.
Click on slide to see answer.
A bird is on the branch.

9. Answer the question 3 What is that? It is a statue (of a lion).
Click on slide to see answer.

10. Answer the question 4 Where is the bear? The bear is in a tree.
It is in a tree.
Click on slide to see answer.

11. Answer the question 5 Who is he? He is Fidel Castro.
Click on slide to see answer.

12. Answer the question 6 Where is the Washington Monument?
The Washington Monument is in Washington, D. C.
Click on slide to see answer.

13. END