How to Make Questions in English

English doesn't make questions just by changing your voice. The key move is inversion: put an auxiliary verb (a helper like do, be, have, can) before the subject. Once you know which auxiliary to use, every question follows the same shape.

The core move: invert

A statement is subject + verb. A yes/no question is auxiliary + subject + verb — the helper jumps to the front.

With be: just swap

When the main verb is be, there's no extra helper — move am/is/are/was/were in front of the subject.

With do / does / did

The present and past simple have no visible auxiliary, so English adds one: do/does (present) or did (past). The main verb then goes back to its plain base form.

The tense lives on do/does/did, so the main verb loses its ending: does she work (not works), did they leave (not left).

Wh- questions & subject questions

For information questions, put the wh- word (what, where, when, why, who, how) first, then the same question form.

One exception: when who or what is the subject (it asks who did the action), you don't add do — the word order stays like a statement.

Common mistakes

Marking the tense twice. After does/did, the main verb is the base form.

Forgetting to invert. A wh- word alone isn't a question — you still need the auxiliary before the subject.

Adding do to a subject question. If who/what is the subject, keep statement order: Who lives here?, not Who does live here? (Who does live here? is only for special emphasis.)

Quick exercise

Fill the gap to complete the question.

1. ___ you like tea? (present simple)
2. Where ___ she work? (present simple)
3. What ___ you do yesterday? (past simple)
4. ___ they ready? (verb be)
5. Who ___ the window? (break — past, subject question)