REPORTED SPEECH: QUESTIONS

¿Cómo se pasa una oración interrogativa a Reported Speech/ Estilo Indirecto?

Para introducir el estilo indirecto emplearemos el verbo ask (preguntar). Vemos ahora algunos ejemplos:


"Where does Peter study?", my sister asked me.
(Estilo Directo)
¿Dónde estudia Peter?, mi hermana me preguntó. 

My sister asked me where Peter studied.
(Estilo Indirecto)
Mi hermana me preguntó donde estudiaba Peter.


"When did you travel to Europe?", my neighbour asked me.(Estilo Directo)
¿Cuándo viajaste a Europa?, mi vecina me preguntó.


My neighbour asked me when I had travelled to Europe.(Estilo Indirecto)
Mi vecina me preguntó cuando yo había viajado a Europa.

QUESTION TAGS

Se llama "Question Tag"  a la frase que se añade al final de una oración para confirmar lo que se dijo en la oración anterior. Por ejemplo:

He is a good doctor, isn't he? Él es un buen doctor, ¿no? Mary can't explain the lesson, can she? Mary no puede explicar la lección, ¿verdad?

Una "Question Tag" está compuesta de dos partes:

• el auxiliar que corresponda en función del tiempo verbal de la oración principal en su forma negativa si el verbo principal está en afirmativo o viceversa
• y el pronombre determinado por el sujeto.Ten en cuenta que cuando el sujeto de la oración se debe reemplazar por el pronombre que le corresponda.

Por ejemplo:

She likes apples, doesn't she? La "question tag" está compuesta por el auxiliar DOES (porque la oración se encuentra en Presente Simple, y en su forma negativa ya que el verbo principal está en modo afirmativo) seguido por el pronombre.

Veamos otro ejemplo:

My brother is not studying the lesson, is he? En este caso la "question tag" está compuesta por el verbo auxiliar IS (to be) ( dado que la oración se encuentra en Presente Continuo y en su forma afirmativa ya que el verbo principal está en modo negativo) seguido por el pronombre.

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

Se utilizan para construir preguntas y siempre se colocan al comienzo de la frase. En algunos casos solamente se refieren a personas y en otros a personas y objetos, y son invariables en género y número, es decir que no cambian si el sustantivo al que se vinculan es singular o plural, masculino o femenino.

Además vale remarcar que los Pronombres Interrogativos generan preguntas que requieren más que un "SI" y un "NO" por respuesta.

Los Pronombres Interrogativos son:

PRONOMBRE	SIGNIFICADO
WHAT?	¿Qué?
WHO?	¿Quién? / ¿Quiénes?
WHICH?	¿Cuál? /¿Cuáles?
WHOSE?	¿De quién? / ¿De quiénes?
WHOM?	¿A quién? / ¿A quiénes?

Veamos algunos ejemplos:

WHAT puede emplearse para preguntar acerca de personas u objetos:

What did John say? ¿Qué dijo John? What book is this? ¿Qué libro es ese? What is your favourite sport? ¿Cuál es tu deporte favorito?

En cambio, WHO sólo puede utilizarse para preguntar acerca de personas:

Who designed the statue? ¿Quién diseñó la estatua? Who is repairing the car? ¿Quién está reparando el coche?

WHICH también se emplea para referirse a personas u objetos:

Which is the nicest? ¿Cuál es el más bonito?

Podemos utilizar WHOSE para preguntar acerca de personas expresando posesión y pertenencia, precediendo a la palabra que hace referencia:

Whose bag is this? ¿De quién es este bolso?

WHOM puede utilizarse para preguntar sobre personas. Cabe aclarar que su uso es menos frecuente y más formal que WHO:

Whom have you lent money? ¿A quién le has prestado dinero? Whom did you meet at the party? ¿A quién conociste en la fiesta?

Es preciso mencionar que en muchas ocasiones los Pronombres Interrogativos requieren necesariamente estar acompañados de una preposición. En estos casos para referirse a personas debe utilizarse indefectiblemente WHOM, mientras que con objetos se puede utilizar WHAT o WHICH, colocando la preposición al final de la interrogación:

Whom did you go to the cinema with? ¿Con quién fuiste al cine? What did he complain about? ¿De qué se quejó?

Who were at the party last night? ¿Quiénes estaban en la fiesta anoche?

El uso de WHAT y WHICH presenta diferencias. En el primer caso se utiliza de una manera más amplia, mientras que WHICH es más restrictivo.

What kind of music do you like?
¿Qué clase de música te gusta?

Which songs do you like the most?
¿Qué canciones/Cuáles te gustan más?

QUESTIONS IV-"LIKE" IN QUESTIONS

'Like' in questions

'LIKE' can be used as a VERB for preference and as a PREPOSITION for description.

What does she like doing at the weekend? (VERB) = What does she enjoy doing?

What is she like? (PREPOSITION) = Describe her character (and maybe her appearance).

What does she look like? (PREPOSITION) = Describe her appearance ONLY.

NOTE! 'How is she?' REFERS ONLY TO HEALTH & WELL-BEING.

Eg. How is your mother? = Is your mother in good health?



What would you like to do next weekend? (VERB) = What do you want to do?

What is London like? (PREPOSITION) = Give me your general impressions of London.

What was the weather like? (PREPOSITION) = Describe the weather to me.

What was the food like? (PREPOSITION) = What did you think about the food?

What were the shops like in London? (PREPOSITION) = Tell me about the shops in London.

What did it look like? (PREPOSITION) = Give me a physical description of it.

QUESTIONS III- SUBJECT/OBJECT QUESTIONS

Subject Questions

Most questions ask for the object of a sentence.

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

Lee Oswald shot President Kennedy.

Who did Lee Oswald shoot? ANSWER = OBJECT (President Kennedy).

With the question words WHO, WHAT & WHICH, if the answer is the SUBJECT, there is NO AUXILIARY 'DO, DOES, DID and the WORD ORDER IS THE SAME AS A STATEMENT.

Who shot President Kennedy? ANSWER = SUBJECT (Lee Oswald).

Here are some more examples of subject questions:

SUBJECT (+ VERB + OBJECT)

Who broke the window? Peter (broke the window)

Who discovered America? Columbus (discovered America)

Which actors starred in Casablanca? Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall (starred in Casablanca).

Which switch operates this machine? The red switch (operates the machine).

What happened to you last night? Something terrible (happened to me last night).

In contrast, here are the object questions for the examples above:

What did Peter break?

Which continent did Columbus discover?

Which actors did Casablanca have in it?

What does this switch operate?

What did you do last night?

QUESTIONS II- "WH-"QUESTIONS (INFORMATION QUESTIONS)

'Wh' questions ask for specific information and start with a question word.
What Which When Where Whereabouts Why Whose How

The most common question structure is: Question word + Auxiliary Verb + Subject +Main Verb.

'Wh' questions usually have a FALLING INTONATION.

Tense		Verb	Answer
Present simple	Whose is this?	What do you do?	I'm a teacher.
Present continuous		Where are you going?	To the bank.
Past simple	When were you there?	When did she do that?	Last night.
Past continuous		Who were playing?	Flamengo & Vasco.
Pres. perf. simple		Why haven't you done your homework?	Because I didn't have time.
Pres. perf. continuous		Which report have you been working on?	The one you asked you asked me to.
Passive		Whereabouts were they found?	On the side of the mountain.
will / would	Who will be there?	How will they get here?	By train.
Can / could	How could you?	What could it be?	It might be a UFO.

'What' can be followed by a noun and is usually used when there is an unlimited number of possibilities. 'Which' is normally used with a limited number of choices.

Eg. What size do you need? Which one do you like the most?

When asking about people it is better to use which. Eg. Which astronauts have landed on the moon?

'How' can combine with adjectives and adverbs.

How many (countables), How much (uncountables), How tall (height), How old (age), How big (size), How fast (speed), How often (frequency), How many times (number), How long (duration), How far (distance)

Prepositions often come at the end of a question.

Eg. What are you looking at? Which channel is the film on?

What are you afraid of? What schools did you go to?

Who did you dance with? What is it about?

Who did you give it to? Who was it written by?

Who is he getting married to? What did you do that for?

How long did you stay for? Who did you get that from?

Short reply questions with prepositions are also possible in English.

Eg. What with? What about? What for? Who to? Who from? Where to?

QUESTIONS I YES/NO QUESTIONS

'Yes/No' questions ask for a positive or negative answer.
They normally start with an AUXILIARY or MODAL verb and are followed by

SUBJECT + (VERB) + OBJECT

'Yes/no' questions normally have a RISING INTONATION.

Tense		Verb	Answer
Present simple	Am I right?	Do I do it like this?	Yes, you do.
Present continuous		Is it working?	Yes, it is.
Past simple	Was she the manager?	Did you enjoy it?	Yes, I did.
Past continuous		Were they fighting?	No, they weren't.
Pres. perf. simple		Have they had dinner yet?	No, they haven't.
Pres. perf. continuous		Has she been working all day?	Yes, she has.
Passive		Was it finished on time?	No, it wasn't
will / would	Will she be happy in her new job?	Will you finish by 5.30?	Yes, of course I will.
Can / could	Could he be right?	Can you pass me the salt, please?	Yes, here you are.

Negative 'Yes/No' questions are used:

To show surprise: Didn't you hear the bell? I rang it four times!

In exclamations: Doesn't that dress look nice! (= That dress looks very nice)

When we expect the listener to agree with us: Haven't we met somewhere before? (= I think that we have)

Be careful with the answers to negative questions: Didn't Dave go to Canada? Yes. (He went there.)
                                                                                                                              No. (He didn't go there.)