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ESL forum >
Message board > Changing aff sentences into interrogative ones
Changing aff sentences into interrogative ones
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apayala
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Changing aff sentences into interrogative ones
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Please... I know that maybe is a silly question... 
When in an exam you are asked to change affirmative sentences into the interrogative form, which option would you choose for the following ones?:
I read a book every week:
Do you read a book every week?
or
Do I read a book every week?
We are cooking tonight:
Are you cooking tonight?
or
Are we cooking tonight?
You know what I mean, don�t you? I don�t know which subjects should be the correct ones
What do you think?
Thanks a lot to everybody,
Ana
EDIT: Thanks Roney, I didn�t notice I had written negative instead of interrogative! |
18 Mar 2011
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roneydirt
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I am sorry I got confused reading your post. You ask about negative post then showed the statements being changed to questions.
I read a book every week.
(negative) I don �t read a book every week.
(questions) Do you read a book every week. (asking a second person, we might ask someone in a more sarcastic way the other sentence you have.)
We are cooking tonight. (it is an answer to the questions you have.)
Are you cooking tonight? and Are we cooking tonight?
(negative) We �re not cooking tonight.
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18 Mar 2011
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amyi
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Hello Ana, I understand from your message that in the test, the sentences are not given within a context. In this case, I think that I would accept either of the answers you suggest: you / I, you / we. Hope this helps!
Amy |
18 Mar 2011
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apayala
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That is the point, Amy, you are just given some sentences without a context and asked to change them into interrogative and negative form, but the interrogative form is the one that makes me hesitate.
Maybe you are right and both subject options are considered right... |
18 Mar 2011
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edrodmedina
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While a person might say "Do I read a book every night?" it is not likely unless he wants the question clarified. The same for the other:"Are we cooking tonight? " (if you �re checking whether it �s your turn or not to cook). |
18 Mar 2011
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apayala
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sorry edrod, I don�t quite understand what do you mean... I think you choose the answer depending on the meaning of the sentence but the sentences can be any other ones, not necessarily the ones I gave above, nothing to do with meaning as far as I know.
I�m off now, I�ll come back later
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18 Mar 2011
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edrodmedina
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When would you ask the question?: Do I read a book every week? It is a valid question but not one that a person is likely to ask is what I�m saying. |
18 Mar 2011
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Zora
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Well, without a proper context. I would accept both. A person, especially in a teaching situation, could be talking about themselves and then ask the class, "Do I have a dog?", "Where did I go to school", etc.
I do agree though that it isn �t used that often but it does exist and without specifying what you want from the students, it �s not entirely wrong to state it that way.
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18 Mar 2011
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moravc
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Do you read a book every week? I read a book every week.
Are you cooking tonight? We are cooking tonight.
These are much more common. If you read several textbooks or graded readers for elementary - preintermediate students, most questions and answers would follow this pattern:
Do you verb? I + verb adverb of time. / We + verb adverb of time.
Are you verb+ing? I am verb+ing. / We are verb+ing.
The other options are ok, but much less common. It depends on the context...
Do I...? Do we...? Am I...? Are we...? questions are less common... Did I/we? is quite common.
Do you lock the door every time you go out? Yes, I always lock the door.
but: Gosh, did I lock the door this morning? I can �t remember!
Do you visit granny at weekends? Yes, I visit granny at weekends.
but: "Mummy, are we visiting granny this Sunday?", the daugther asked.
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18 Mar 2011
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ldthemagicman
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Dear Apayala,
You write:
"When in an exam you are asked to change affirmative sentences into the interrogative form, which option would you choose for the following ones?"
I would choose the following underlined examples.
I read a book every week:
Do you read a book every week?
or
Do I read a book every week?
We are cooking tonight:
Are you cooking tonight?
or
Are we cooking tonight?"
Note: The examination (as quoted above) does does NOT refer to QUESTION and ANSWER. It does NOT say, "QUESTION the following statement with an INTERROGATIVE sentence". It simply asks for an affirmative sentence to be changed into an interrogative sentence.
No doubt others will disagree with me, but when we teach a sentence in its various forms, in my opinion, it is NOT helpful to constantly change the Subject (the Personal Pronoun) from "I" to "you"; from "we" to "you", etc.
This simply confuses the Student, especially in a Beginners � Class.
I prefer to teach the following descriptions, using 4 forms of the same sentence:
"I read a book every week". Positive.
"I do read a book every week". Emphatic (with the emphasis on "do").
"I do not read a book every week". Negative
"Do I read a book every week?" Question.
"We are cooking tonight". Positive.
"We are cooking tonight". Emphatic (with the emphasis on "are").
"We are not cooking tonight". Negative
"Are we cooking tonight?" Question.
In this way, Students can directly compare exactly similar sentences, and can independently make a sentence which is first Positive, then Emphatic, then Negative, then Interrogative, (without being confused by being obliged to change the Subject). Eventally, they can make all 4 forms of any sentence.
I am sure that someone will disagree with my teaching methods, but this system is effective in my classes!
On the information we have received in this query, I believe that this Examination is testing the ability of the Students to convert an �Affirmative� Sentence into a �Negative� Sentence, and also into an �Interrogative� Sentence, nothing more.
Les |
18 Mar 2011
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