7. Asking Questions

The ability to ask questions is crucial in every language because it is a way to get information you need. In the previous task, you had a chance to see eight questions in context in various tenses. For example:

Does the technology (also) have an environmental benefit?

Are you using the technology right now, at this moment?

Has your company been developing any other smart technologies in addition to the snake well?

What is the main reason for using snake-well technology?

What´s your next project going to be?

How deep is the oil below the seabed in the Brunei field?

How long have you been drilling snake wells off the Brunei coast?

When did your company start exploring the Brunei field?

As you can see, the questions have been divided into two groups. The group on the left requires either Yes or No in order to answer the questions. Therefore, this group is called “yes-no questions”. The group on the right, however, requires giving longer answers containing some facts. The questions in this group have a question word at the beginning of each question. This word usually starts with “wh-” and that is the reason why these questions are called “wh- questions”.

Of course, there is also another way to categorize questions. They can also be sorted out according to the verb tense:

How deep is the oil below the seabed in the Brunei field?

What is the main reason for using snake-well technology?

Does the technology (also) have an environmental benefit?

Are you using the technology right now, at this moment?

Has your company been developing any other smart technologies in addition to the snake well?

How long have you been drilling snake wells off the Brunei coast?

What´s your next project going to be?

When did your company start exploring the Brunei field?

Present Simple

 

 

Present Progressive

Present Perfect Progressive

 

 

 

“Going to” future

Past Simple

 

However, although questions can be categorized according to various criteria, their structure always follows the same pattern – with the auxiliary verb preceding the subject. You can think of that pattern as a formula you just follow to produce correct question forms:

Question word

Auxiliary verb

Subject

Other verb elements (if there are any)

Other sentence elements (if there are any)

When

did

your company

start exploring

the Brunei field?

 

How deep

is

the oil

 

below the seabed in the Brunei field?

 

What

is

the main reason

 

for using snake-well technology?

 

 

Does

the technology

have

an environmental benefit?

 

 

Are

you

using

the technology right now, at this moment?

 

 

Has

your company

been developing

any other smart technologies in addition to the snake well?

How long

have

you

been drilling

snake wells off the Brunei coast?

 

What

is

your next project

going to be?

 

 

As you can see, some boxes in the table above are empty. To find out why + some other exceptions from the fixed arrangement, study this simple grammar overview. Then practise (or revise) this grammar point in this task. Finally, complete the gaps in this dialogue.