Tip 3
The difference between regular questions and subject questions
Are all questions created equal?
In tip #2, I explained that you must put an auxiliary verb after the question word unlike in many other languages
Where does Anna come from? מאיפה היא באה
Anna comes from Italy. אנה באה מאיטליה
But, is it always like this?
No. When we ask a question about the subject at hand, we will not use the auxiliary verb in the Simple Present and Simple Past
Who comes from Italy?
Anna comes from Italy.
If we replace the question word (in green) with the answer (in green), we will get a correct sentence.
Note that the question word who refers to the answer Anna – the subject in the sentence. It is very easy to identify a subject question since you can replace the question word with the answer word and the sentence still makes sense.
Let’s look at another example:
How many students succeeded on the test?
5 students succeeded on the test.
If we replace the question word with the answer, we will get a correct sentence.
In summary: remember, in most cases we will use the auxiliary verb immediately after the question word when we want to ask a question in English.
However, when we ask a question to which the answer is the subject of the sentence (Anna\five students) we will not use an auxiliary verb!
Good luck, and see you in the next tip! 🙂
