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The word order changes in questions but other things might also happen.

I. The ‘easy’ cases where ONLY the word order changes:

1. Sentences with the verb “be” (am, are, is, was, were) as predicate: only the word order changes, the verb “be” comes first and then comes the subject

e.g.#1: She is nice. – Is she nice?

e.g.#2: We are happy. – Are we happy?

e.g.#3: Tom was more polite when he was younger. – Was Tom more polite when he was younger?

2. Sentences with modal auxiliaries (can, could, will, would, shall, should, must, may, might): only the word order changes, the modal auxiliary comes first and then comes the subject

e.g.#1: He can cook. – Can he cook?

e.g.#2: They must be on time every day. – Must they be on time every day?

e.g.#3: We will arrange a meeting. – Will we arrange a meeting?

e.g.#4: Susan will be the first to know. – Will Susan be the first to know?

e.g.#5: I would have come. – Would I have come?        (Noticethat only the modal auxiliary goes to the first position, have stays with the verb in cases where 2 auxiliaries + a verb form the predicate!)

3. Sentences in the Present Perfect / Past Perfect Tense with the auxiliary have / has / had: only the word order changes, the auxialiary have/has/had comes first and then comes the subject

e.g.#1: Mary has won. – Has Mary won?

e.g.#2: The house had burnt down by the time they arrived. – Had the house burnt down by the time they arrived?

II. The ‘more difficult’ cases where an extra word comes into the question:

In the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses there is NO auxiliary in affirmative sentences (+), but there is one in questions (?) and negatives (-). Study this example:

(+) Danny learns Spanish.

(?) Does Danny learn Spanish

(-) Danny doesn’t learn Spanish.

In questions the word order in this case is always:

do / does/ did + subject + verb

e.g.#1: They live in New York. – Do they live in New York?

e.g.#2: We visited the last month. – Did we visit them last month?

QUESTION WORDS:

When the question is not a yes-no question, there is a question word (what, where, why, when, what time, how many…, how much…) in the sentence and it always comes to the very first position, and then the question word order discussed above:

e.g.#1: When does your train leave?

e.g.#2: Why are you here?

e.g.#3: What can you sing?

See how subject questions are different HERE.

VOCABULARY:

predicate: it tells us what the action is in the sentence, it includes the verb