Questions tagged [questions]
This tag is for questions related to the formation, or answering of questions.
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'It' or 'that' pronouns in why- questions
In the dialogue below:
Person A: My trip was stressful.
Person B: Why was it?
I feel like "why was it?" sounds wrong and "why was that?" sounds correct and more natural in casual ...
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Which answer is the correct one? [duplicate]
No milk in the fridge?
No!
No milk in the fridge?
No there isn't
No milk in the fridge?
Yes, there's no milk
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1
vote
1
answer
96
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Colon and semicolon use in a list of questions in APA style
I'm wondering the correct punctuation in a list of questions within an academic APA setting. For instance, if I had:
We were still able to address our original questions: How did the students respond ...
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0
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26
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Article 'The' when use with the name of an island [duplicate]
According standard English, we do not use 'the' with the name of a single island, for example, 'Tasmania' or 'Bermuda'. We just use 'the' when the name refers to a group of islands or is made up of ...
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0
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94
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Why do artists make grammar mistakes in their songs? [closed]
I would be deeply grateful if you answer my question. I'm currently writing my thesis about standard and non-standard English grammar and the main problem of my work is why artists make grammar "...
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Do I put a question mark after the word do in this quote? [closed]
This is a quote by Franklin D Roosevelt, it goes as follows:
“ it is not sufficient just to want ask yourself. What are you going to do to get what you want”
My question is when writing this quote is ...
3
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2
answers
206
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'I know what is freedom / freedom is'. <-- Word order in WH-questions
My understanding is that in a wh- subordinate clause, we must use statement word order (subject then verb) rather than question word order (verb then subject):
Correct: I know what freedom is.
Wrong:...
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Split indirect question
Here's a direct question.
Where does he live?
And here's an indirect one.
Do you know where he lives?
I wonder how you would analyze the following structure. Can we call it "a split indirect ...
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67
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Why don't indirect questions undergo subject-auxiliary inversion, like in languages like Spanish? [duplicate]
Just two days ago, I asked a question about indirect questions in Spanish and English.
Usually, when we pose an indirect question in English, we first ask a direct question like this: "Do you ...
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2
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Noun-verb Order in Indirect Questions compared with Direct Questions
Usually, when we ask an indirect question in English, we first ask a direct question, then we say the real question indirectly. But in Spanish, they say two direct questions. Why is English different?
...
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What's the term for "blame disguised as a question"? [duplicate]
Is there a term for disguising blame as a question?
For example, when someone is late, someone sarcastically says
Wow you're early, did you wake up late?
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3
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Is “How tiresome are you” ungrammatical?
On a post on twitter a girl had sent messages to her boyfriend and one of the messages was
How tiresome are you.
People were saying that it is grammatically incorrect but I don't understand why ...
1
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1
answer
70
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Is "we know how expensive we are" an embedded question? [duplicate]
I cannot for the life of me decide if this is supposed to be interpreted as a complement clause or an embedded question or what.
My thought process so far is that it couldn't be a reported question (...
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50
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Are which+ noun and whose nouns are acceptable in English free relatives? [closed]
I am curious if the following two sentences are acceptable in English.
a. He read which books she read.
b. I am sure that my dad will pay for whose cars I damage.
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260
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Which one of the following..., Single or Multiple possible answers
In a MCQ I was surprised to see that there were multiple correct answers to the following question:
[...] Which one of the following entities can perform this action?
I thought that "which one&...
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Where better to whet one's grammar?
I wonder if all interrogative pronouns can be used in structures like
Where better to learn about the resilience of life?
For example,
Who better to repair my car?
How better to cook potatoes than ...
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We know how expensive we are
We know how expensive we are.
I cannot for the life of me decide if this is supposed to be interpreted as a complement clause or an embedded question or what.
My thought process so far is that it ...
3
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3
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335
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Why is the structure interrogative-which-word – subject – verb (including question mark) being used so often? Is it grammatical?
I've noticed that more and more headlines of articles and ads (excluding those in more traditional online media) are of the structure interrogative-subject-verb instead of interrogative-verb-subject.
...
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Is it possible to construct a question out of a resultative predicate?
I've seen contradictory answers to this question. Do any of the following how-sentences with resultative adjectives sound remotely fine to you native speakers? Or are they all bad? Is there a cline of ...
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213
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What's a term for a question where the options are Response/No Response instead of Yes/No?
Is there a specific term for a question, such as Are you asleep? and Can you hear me?, where the binary is Response/No Response rather than Yes/No?
I feel like there are other aspects of this concept ...
1
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1
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54
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Do I need a question mark at end of statement ending in a parenthetical question? [duplicate]
If a sentence ends with a question offset by an em-dash does it end with a period or a question mark? This is the example:
Lucy scans for forgotten manglow mentions, but the margin notes contain only ...
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69
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Is the question ""Does it exist what I'm looking for?" " the most usual way to ask a question in this meaning? [closed]
I'm doing a translation from Portuguese to English, and I've found a phrase that is a simple question, but I don't know if it exists, because it simply doesn't exist on Google, with one exception.
&...
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What is the difference between 'can', 'could' and 'would you mind' in asking questions? [closed]
For me these 3 have the same meaning, but i just could not differentiate what the subtle difference between them, maybe 'would you mind' is more polite then the other two?
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Negatives and Interrogatives with and without subject-verb inversion: "Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
"Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
Regarding the aforementioned clauses, from "experience", I can surmise different, subtle nuances. ...
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Is that grammatically correct if I wrote “where is the sense when”
I'm writing a song, and I’m not sure if it would be acceptable if I said
Where’s the sense when you clip the wings of angels?
Is it grammatically correct or not ?
4
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2
answers
439
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Is "We do not have any such." a valid response?
I'm filling out a form and one the requests is something to the effect of:
Please provide any tax audit reports and tax credit filings from the past two years.
What I would like to respond is:
We ...
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28
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Comma joining a question and a quoted speech
I find this sentence in a paper:
If this coming to awareness is true good luck, why would Shi Tiesheng need designer luck, he asks: “perhaps I’m already the darling of fate?”
Apparently, the author ...
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3
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554
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Difference between how and why
I know how and why are different, but in certain situations it seems like the same answer would work for both of them. “How is the boy so big?” “Why is the boy so big?” Would the answer to both of ...
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Are English negative polarity questions biased?
A friend and I had a question about a sentence that we encountered:
Didn't you want to pay for something that was too much?
My friend argues that sentence is fairly neutral clarifying in a neutral ...
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When asking a question indirectly, should I still put the verb first? [duplicate]
For example, what is correct:
Can you also tell me where I can find...
or
Can you also tell me where can I find...
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174
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In which clause does 'How' of "How do you think I feel" belong?
(1) How do you think I feel?
Semantically, (1) asks the listener's opinion about how the speaker feels. So it's syntactically natural that the verb think has as its complement a subordinate clause I ...
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Is "Exists there an alternative to PHP?" considered "old English"? [closed]
I like this way:
Exists there an alternative to PHP?
But there's also:
Is there an alternative to PHP?
And:
Does it exist an alternative to PHP?
Or maybe:
Does there exist an alternative to PHP?...
5
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1
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"Are there...?" with and without the word "any" [closed]
I am wondering about the usage of the word "any" with the construction "Are there...?".
Does it makes any difference if I ask
Are there any books on the shelf?
or
Are there ...
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90
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A combination of a singular and plural noun in a question
Which country or countries do you think they are?
Is that sentence grammatically correct?
It'd be incredibly awkward to say
Which country or countries do you think it is or they are?
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Answers to a negative statement that then ends in ", right?"
There are lots of answers here on how to answer to negative questions like "Don't you ...?", e.g. How to answer a negative question without ambiguity?. But I am not sure about answers to a ...
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0
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How to define someone who is more efficient than the actual person responsible for the task?
Like we say "Holier than the pope" to define someone who acts more pious than the priest. I cannot recall expression for someone who acts over-efficiently over a matter than does not concern ...
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1
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I am not going to school => Amn't I going to school? [closed]
You are not going to school => Aren't you going to school? // this is correct, right?
I am not going to school => Amn't I going to school? // something's wrong here.
How to build the correct ...
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457
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"What number of president is Joe Biden?" Is this correct? [duplicate]
I know that Joe Biden is the 46th president of USA, but if I was to ask this as a question what would that be?
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138
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Have you a name?
In The Dig, a video game, character Maggie asks a question this way (full script here):
MAGGIE: Have you a name?
CREATOR: I had a name, when I was alive. Now that I am again and again dead, what need ...
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270
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Is "Why?" (said in a neutral tone) considered to be an aggressive word in English language? [closed]
I am a non-native English speaker although I lived in UK for 5+ years.
I had a conversation with a colleague today and he claims that using "why?" in conversation is an aggressive thing to ...
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0
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Assertive clause with comma followed by an interrogative [duplicate]
Can we write in the following manner? A complete question is embedded in an assertive sentence separated by a comma:
He thought, how can I complete this task?
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If saying 'Why can't I ...?' is correct, would 'Why cannot I ...?' be technically correct?
Why can't I ...?
is perfectly correct grammar as far as I can tell. But what happens if the contraction is removed,
Why cannot I ...?
This sounds bizarre, but would this be technically correct ...
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What is correct: "did you do smth and do smth" or "Did you do smth and did smth"?
I'm trying to figure out which form is correct when composing such a question:
"Did you go there and forget to eat?"
"Did you go there and forgot to eat?"
Not the most creative ...
0
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2
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481
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When to capitalize (or not) the first letter in a question [closed]
Is it proper to capitalize the first letter in EVERY question or is it correct to NOT capitalize it when the question is preceded by a coma, colon, or semicolon within a sentence?
Many thanks!
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How would you punctuate a question with an explanatory sentence?
I'm trying to write an article, but I am confused about how to punctuate this question:
How about a birthday gift? A little something to show you care.
Should it rather be punctuated with an em-dash ...
3
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3
answers
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Embedded phrases and clauses in "May I know..." questions
Hello everyone and thank you for your consideration. I am a professional English teacher and I usually can find answers for every grammar question, but I have one student that is very good at coming ...
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Now is the time. vs. The time is now
I need help with this:
Now is the time
vs
The time is now
For example - Now is the time to go to the store, or The time is now to go to the store.
Which is correct?
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Is “Do you be?” a grammatical and meaningful sentence in present-day English? [duplicate]
Suppose you were asked the question:
Do you be?
I wonder what you would understand it to mean, and I wonder how you would answer it.
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What's the best way to call someone who delivers small packages at the door? [closed]
What term for he/she will sound best?
Delivery boy?
Delivery person?
Delivery men?
Deliverer?
Courier?
Thanks!
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What is it called when an author uses a question mark without a question attached? [duplicate]
My specific example is from a passage in Fahrenheit 451 (although I've seen it used colloquially as well):
Click? Pic? Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why, How, ...
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