Learn How to Ask Yes-No Questions in English | English Grammar Lesson
Do you want to improve your English grammar and learn how to ask questions correctly? In this English lesson, you'll learn how to form yes-no questions in English using simple rules, clear explanations, and practical examples.
Yes-no questions are questions that can be answered with yes or no. This lesson explains how to change statements into questions using the verb be, helping verbs, and the auxiliary verbs do, does, and did.
📚 What You'll Learn in This Video:
✅ What yes-no questions are and how to use them in everyday English ✅ How to form questions with the verb be ✅ How to make questions using helping verbs such as is, are, has, and have ✅ When to use do, does, and did in questions ✅ How to form questions in the present simple and past simple ✅ How to make questions with regular and irregular verbs ✅ The difference between British and American English questions with "have" ✅ How to answer yes-no questions naturally in conversations ✅ Practice exercises with answers to test your understanding
Examples of Yes-No Questions:
Are you from California? Do you like lemon pie? Does she drive a car? Did he go to Alabama? Have they eaten already? Is she riding a horse?
Whether you're an ESL student, an English language learner, or someone who wants to improve everyday communication, this lesson will help you understand English question formation and speak with greater confidence.
🎯 Practice Makes Perfect! Follow along with the exercises, pause the video to answer each question, and check your answers at the end.
If you find this lesson helpful, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and explore our other English grammar lessons to continue improving your English skills.
Now you can learn English quickly by yourself at home for free step by step! This video gives you a topic for conversation, something to speak about, as well as some words and phrases to use. Great for teachers and students of English as a second language (ESL) both in the classroom and as self-study.
AI Generated·May contain errors
Yes, no questions in English.
By the end of this video, you should be able to understand
and make simple yes, no questions in English.
Let's get started.
There are many types of questions in English.
The easiest are questions that can be answered yes or no.
Are you from around here?
Yes, I am.
Do you come here often?
Yes, I do.
Can I buy you a drink?
No, thanks.
Are you married?
Yes, I am.
To form a question from a statement,
first count the number of verbs.
For example, John is a doctor.
There's one verb, is, which is a form of be.
Jane drives a sports car.
There's one verb, drives.
Joan played basketball last night.
There's one verb, played.
Jan is eating her dinner.
There are two verbs, is eating.
June has rented an apartment.
Two verbs.
has rented. Jen has been living there since 1969.
Three verbs, has been living. If there is one verb
in the statement and the verb is a form of be,
simply switch the position of the subject and
verb. For example, the statement, John is a doctor,
can be changed into the question,
Is John a doctor?
The Jensen's are here can be changed into
Are the Jensen's here?
If there are two or more verbs, simply switch
the positions of the subject and the first verb.
For example, Jan is eating dinner.
Question.
Is Jan eating dinner?
June has rented an apartment.
Has June rented an apartment?
Jen has been living here since 2009.
Has Jen been living here since 2009?
If there is one verb
and the verb is not a form of be,
the process is more complex.
Here's how it works. Add do to the
beginning of the sentence.
For example, the Johnsons live in that house.
Question. Do the
Johnsons live in that house?
If the main verb carries a third person singular S, move the S
to do, making it does.
For example, Jane drives a car.
Do Jane drives a car? Not finished. Not yet.
We're going to move the S from drives
to the do at the beginning of the question,
making it, does Jane drive a car?
That's a good question.
If there is one verb and the verb is
not a form of be, the process is more complex.
Add do to the beginning of the sentence.
The Johnsons live in that house.
Do the Johnsons live in that house? If the verb carries past
tense, move the past tense from do making it did.
Joan played basketball last night. Do Joan played
basketball? Wait, not finished yet.
We have to move the past tense from the ed, unplayed, to the
beginning of the sentence do, making it into did Joan play basketball?
That's a good question.
For irregular verbs, it's a little bit tricky.
The past tense is hidden.
For example, play plus past is played.
Eat plus past is ate.
This is the irregular form of the verb.
Sing plus past is sang.
Go plus past is went.
So when we make a past question,
we separate the past form from the main verb,
leaving the base form.
For example, Brandon saw a panda.
Saw contains two parts, past and see.
So we take the past off of the main verb, leaving see,
and we move the past tense to the do verb at
the beginning, making it did.
So the final question is, did Brandon see a panda?
In conversation,
most questions are asked of the second person,
you, and answered in the first person, I.
For example, are you from California?
No, I'm from Oregon. Are you? Yes, I'm from Hollywood.
Do you know any movie stars? No, I don't go out at night.
In British English, the verb have
sometimes functions like be in questions.
This is not common in American English.
have you or do you have?
The statement, you have a pet ferret,
might become a different question
depending on whether you're using British or American English.
For example, in British English,
they might say, have you a pet ferret?
Whereas in American English, they would say, do you have
a pet ferret? Let's practice.
Change these statements
into yes-no questions. Mr. Farrell
is a lawyer. Mom is cooking dinner.
We like lemon pie.
Tad lives in Kentucky. They have eaten
already. You were here yesterday.
Eddie plays badminton.
She was riding a horse. Jack went to
Alabama.
Feel free to pause the video if you'd like
more time to answer the questions. Here are
the answers or the questions. Is Mr. Farrell a lawyer?
Is mom cooking dinner? Do we like lemon
pie? Does Tad live in Kentucky?
Have they eaten already?
Were you here yesterday? Does Eddie play
badminton? Was she riding a horse?
Did Jack go to Alabama?
How did you do? Did you get them all
right? Hope that was helpful.
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Thanks for watching.
