In our time, knowledge of foreign languages is almost the most important indicator of success in the professional field. English is no longer a foreign language. Owning it is considered necessary and natural, but for its successful use, basic knowledge is needed. Alternative questions is just one of those topics.
Introduction
There are five basic types of questions in English:
- general;
- special;
- question to the subject and its definition;
- alternative;
- separating.
In order to fully understand what an alternative question is, we need to know the structure and usage of the general and specific questions.
General question
Speaking of questions in English, we need to understand that general and alternative questions are very similar in their construction. The general type is built using the auxiliary verb do/does, which is placed inoffer first.
Sentence example:
Our teacher speaks English
Ask him a general question and get:
Does our teacher speak English?
When we use the modal verbs can (could), may (might), must, shall (should), will (would) when making sentences, then we put it at the beginning of the interrogative sentence:
I can read in English. - Can I read in English?
Special issue
Special is a question that is asked with a special question word:
- what? - what? which one?
- why? - why?
- where? - where? where?
- how? - how?
- how long? - how long?
- which? - which one?
- who? - who?
- when? - when?
When drawing up such a construction, a special word is put in the first place, and as a result we get a question that gives color to the ongoing action:
- What do you do? - What are you doing?
- How long does it last? - How long does it take?
And so on.
Dividing question
Dividing is a question with an ending that repeats an auxiliary or modal verb, but with the opposite coloring of the main verb. Moreover, the first part of the construction is an affirmative sentence with a direct word order.
These questions often indicate uncertainty or doubt about something. And the "tail" is usuallytranslated as "isn't" or "isn't it". The answer to disjunctive questions is a combination of the subject and an auxiliary or modal verb. For example:
- We should go home and prepare for the coming holidays, shouldn'd we? - Yes, we should (We should go home and prepare for the upcoming weekend, right? - Yes, we should).
- Agnes is ready to be introduced to my parents, isn't she? - No, she is not. You don't know each other well enough for this.
- They did so much for our child, aren't they? - Yes, they are! Our boy is alive only because of them.
Alternative/disjunctive questions are not very similar to each other, but to understand the first we need to find out what forms of questions there are in English.
What is an alternative question?
We've said this before, but we'll say it again. Alternative question - this is actually a general question, but with a small caveat: naturally, it must contain an alternative.
That is, an alternative question is a question that involves choosing one of the proposed options, whether it be an object or an action. A feature of this construction is also that it does not allow an unambiguous answer: "yes" or "no" and requiresactual confirmation of your choice. The alternative question is good because it can refer to any member of the sentence.
For example:
- Do you want coffee or tea? - Do you want coffee or tea?
- Does she learn English or Chinese? - Does she study English or Chinese?
Speaking of another important component of any question - intonation - we note that in the first part of the sentence (before the union or) it is ascending, and in the second - descending.
How to form an alternative question?
As they say, to make alternative questions is not very difficult. This type of question, like others in English, is formed with the help of inversion - changing the order of words in a sentence. In the first place, as in the general question, the auxiliary verb do (I, you, we, they) or does (he, she, it) is put, followed by the subject + predicate + object 1 + conjunction or + object 2.
For example, let's take as a basis sentences composed of two general questions:
- Does he want to do his homework or does he want to play any computer game? - Does he want to do his homework or does he want to play some computer game?
- Will you go to the cafe or will you join me? - Will you go to the cafe or will you join me?
- Should we bring flowers or should we bring a present? - Should we bring flowers or should we bring a gift?
Now we remove the first part of one of the general questions and at the output we get a classic alternative:
- Does he want to do his homework or to play anycomputer game? - Does he want to do his homework or play some computer game?
- Will you go to the cafe or join me? - Will you go to the cafe or join me?
- Should we bring flowers or should we bring a present? - Should we bring flowers or a gift?
As you can see, the alternative question is the same general question, but with suggested choices. Although in some cases the second option can be replaced with a particle not. For example:
- Are you going to join us or not? - Are you going to join us or not?
- Can you hear me or not? - Can you hear me or not?
- Will we make more cookies or not? - Are we going to make more cookies or not?
We have already said that one-word "yes" or "no" answers are not allowed when answering alternarive questions, so the answer must contain part of it. For example:
- Do you like swimming or diving? - Swimming (Do you like swimming or diving? - Swimming).
- Should we tell our teacher about the accident or my mother? - Of course, our teacher! (Should we tell our teacher or my mom about the incident? - Our teacher, of course!)
- Are he going to go to bed or to play tennis? - To play tennis (Is he going to go to bed or play tennis? - Play tennis).
If we ask a question to the subject, then in the answer we must use an auxiliary or modal verb. For example:
- Do you like orange juice or does your brother? - My brother does (Do you like orange juice or your brother? - My brother).
- Must I pass these exams or must all of us? - I suppose, all of you must
- Will you go with grandmother or will I? - I will, don't worry (Will you go with your grandmother or me? - I will go, don't worry).
Sometimes alternative questions can consist of special question words and other sentence members and imply a special question. In this case, when writing them, a colon is usually required, and the answer will not be too long, provided that it does not contain an explanation. For example:
- Where are you going: to the cinema or to your home? - Home, I should prepare for my final exams (Where are you going: to the cinema or home? - Home, I should prepare for the final exams).
- How was that party: awful or unbelievably awful? - Actually, it was great. Because you were not there (How was the party: terrible or incredibly terrible? - Actually, great. Because you were not there).
- What is it: meat of fish? - I hope meat. I don't eat fish (What is it: meat or fish? - I hope that meat. I don't eat fish).
Conclusion
We have given enough examples of alternative questions to help you understand what these questions are, how to write them and how to answer them correctly. To consolidate the result, we recommend that you perform severalassignments for alternative questions in order to fully understand this topic. Good luck!
