– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hello. My name is Emma, and today, we are

going to look at yes/no questions. So, there

are six different types of questions in English.

Today, we will look at a common type of question,

which is the yes/no question. Yes/no questions

are answered with yes or no. Many students

make mistakes with yes/no questions because

they can be a little bit confusing, and I'll

show you why. Let's look at some examples. So, here is a sentence. "She is a teacher."

"Is" is the verb. Now, if I turn this into a

yes/no question, it becomes, "Is she a teacher?"

So, you'll notice the "is" and the "she" switched.

"Is she a teacher?" "Yes, she is a teacher." Or,

"No, she is not a teacher." Both of those are

possible answers. Now, if you look at the next

sentence, "You like pizza." If we make this into

a question, it becomes, "Do you like pizza?"

So, wait a second. "Do you like pizza, but is

she a teacher?" These are different. They're both

yes/no questions, but here we have "do", and in

this one, there is no "do". So, today, I will

explain why for some yes/no questions we need

"do" or "does", and for other yes/no questions,

we just do that switch. Let's look at another

example. "They can swim." If we want this to be

a yes/no question, it becomes, "Can they swim?"

So, in this case, "can" and "they" switch to make

a yes/no question, and you will notice we have

a question mark, question mark, question mark,

so we know it's a question. So, let's find out

when do we switch, and when do we use "do",

"does", and "did". So, yes/no questions can

be confusing because people don't know if they

should use "do" or "does" or if they should just

switch the verb with the subject. I'm going to

teach you about three different types of yes/no

questions to help you understand this better.

So, we have type 1, where we're going to talk

about the "be" verb; type 2, where we're going

to talk about helping verbs; and type 3, where

we're going to talk about main verbs, and I'll

explain each of these to you. Understanding the

different types will help you create correct

yes/no questions. So, I have here a statement.

"She is happy." The first thing you should do

when you're creating a yes/no question is you can

create a statement, so this is not a question,

it's like a sentence, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to think about the verb.

The verb in this case is "is". "Is" is a "be" verb,

so "be" verbs include "am", like "I am", "are",

"you are", "she is", "he is", "it is", "they

are", or "we are". So, if you see "are" or "is",

you're dealing with the "be" verb. So, this all

has to do with the "be" verb. Anytime you have

a statement with "is" or "are" like this, and

there's no other verb, so as I said, the verb

type is the "be" verb, what you do is you switch

the position of the subject with the "be" verb.

That sounds complicated, but watch. It's very

easy. "She is happy." We switch. "Is she happy?"

So, we can call this "invert", we can call

it "switch". All you do is you take the "is"

and you put it in front. "She is happy" becomes "Is she happy?"

So, "be" verbs, you invert. You switch the

position. Let's look at some other examples.

So, we have here "Are you tired?" So, if we wanted

the statement, we could say, "You are tired."

Okay? So, "are" is a "be" verb, so the verb

type is a "be" verb, so that means it's type 1.

And so, that means for type 1 verbs, we do the switch. "You are tired" becomes

"Are you tired?" And then, of course, the question mark. Okay. So, very easy,

you just switch for the "be" verb. Here's another

example. "Are kids fun?" So, the statement

would be "Kids are fun." "Are" is a "be" verb. You switch them. "Are kids fun?"

Or imagine I want to know about your friend. "Your friend is a doctor?"

When we switch, it turns to the question, "Is

your friend a doctor?" "Be" verbs are the easiest

because you just switch the subject with the verb, so the switch is easy.

So, we talked about type 1 "be" verbs and how you switch them. Let's look at type 2.

Type 2 are helping verbs. I'll show you what a helping verb is in a moment.

Here is a sentence. "She can come here." We have "can" which is a helping verb.

It helps the main verb "come". "Can" is a helping verb. "Come" is the main verb.

So, helping verb, main verb. So, because there's

a helping verb, we're calling this type 2,

we will use this. With helping verbs, you switch the position of the helping verb.

So, "She can come here" becomes "Can she come here?" So, you take the helping verb

and you move it in front. "Can she come here?" "Yes, she can." "No, she can't."

So, what are some other helping verbs? "Will"

is a helping verb. We can put different helping

verbs here as an example. "She will come." "She

has come." "She should come." "She would come."

"She must come." So, these are all helping verbs. So, when you have a helping verb

like these words, you move the helping verb in front of the subject.

So, here are some more examples. "Have they finished?" So, "have" is a helping verb.

Imagine we have the sentence, we can write, "They have finished."

To turn this into a yes/no question, we take the

helping verb, "have", and we move it to the front.

"Have they finished?" And now we have "Have they finished?"

We can do the same thing with "could". "Could" is a helping verb. The sentence is,

"You could hurry up." That's the statement, "You

could hurry up." To make a question, we switch,

"could" moves to the front and becomes, "Could you hurry up?"

So, "could" was here, it moves to the front. So, this is the second type.

One thing that confuses students is "is".

Because here, I told you "is" is a "be" verb,

you move it to the front. "Is" and "are" can

be helping verbs. So, "She is running." "Is",

in this sentence, is a helping verb. "Run" is

the main verb. We would move "is" to the front.

"Is she running?" So, this "is" is different

because of this verb, "running". We have a helping

verb, "is", and the main verb, "run". The good

news is type 1 and type 2 have the same rule.

You just move the "is" or the helping verb in

front. Now, let's look at type 3. Type 3 is

different. So, type 3 is main verbs. We do something different when we're working with

main verbs. Let me explain. Here is a sentence.

"She likes English." "Like" is not the "be" verb.

"Like" is not a helping verb, so it is type

3, main verb. Anything that is not a "be" verb

or a helping verb falls into this category. So,

what happens? "She likes English." We want to

make a yes/no question. So, what we do for type

3 is we need to add "do", "does", or "did".

Depending on if we're talking about the present tense, "do" or "does", or the past,

we can use "did". In this case, we're talking

about now. "Does" works with "he" and "she".

"Do" is for "I do", "you do", "we do", "they

do". So, be careful. If you use "I", "you", "we",

"they", use "do". If you use "he", "she", or "it",

use "does". So, what does the sentence look like

when it's a question? It becomes "Does",

"Does she like English?" "She likes English."

"Does she like English?" So, we did two things. First step,

we added "does", so "Does she", I can write it up here. Added "does", "she".

Second step, we change the verb, we take off the "s".

"Does she like English?" "She does like

English, yes." So, that's how we make type 3

yes/no questions. It's different than type 1

and type 2. Let's look at some other examples.

"Do you play?" So, imagine the statement is

"you play", "you play". "Play" is a main verb.

It's not the "be" verb. It's not a helping verb. "Play" is the main verb.

"Do you play?" We can add "do". "Do you play?" If it's "he", "he plays",

we can change it to "Does he play?" Here's another one, "understand".

"Understand" is the main verb. There's no "be" verb, there's no helping verb,

so we need to add, in this case, we have "he", so we use "does", we put it in front,

"Does he understand?" And again, there's nothing, no "s" on "understand".

When we're talking about the past, it's the same thing, except we use "did".

"Did he understand?" "Does he understand" is now, "did he understand" is the past,

so we use "did" for the past, we use "do" or "does" for now.

So, again, main verbs are every verb that is not

the "be" verb or a verb that is not a helping

verb. So, every other verb, "play", "understand",

"listen", "go", these are all main verbs.

So, the way to understand yes/no questions is

to think about the verb. Is it a "be" verb,

is it a helping verb, or is it a main verb?

Once you know that, you can create the correct

yes/no question. So, thank you for watching.

There is a quiz you can take at our website,

www.engvid.com, to practice what you learned

today. Yes/no questions are very important in

English; they are the most common type of question, so it's important you learn how

to create yes/no questions. You can check out

our channel and subscribe. We have many videos

on many topics related to English, including

on grammar, vocabulary, writing, listening,

and so much more. So, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, take care.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
question /ˈkwɛstʃən/ B1	noun - a sentence or phrase used to find out information verb - to ask or inquire about something
answer /ˈænsər/ A2	noun - a reply to a question verb - to reply or respond
verb /vɜːrb/ B1	noun - a word that expresses an action, state, or occurrence
be /biː/ A1	verb - to exist or have a certain quality
switch /swɪtʃ/ B1	verb - to change or exchange positions noun - an act of switching or a device to control something
example /ɪɡˈzæmpl/ A2	noun - a typical instance or illustration
teacher /ˈtiːtʃər/ A1	noun - a person who teaches
student /ˈstuːdnt/ A1	noun - a person who studies
mistake /mɪˈsteɪk/ A2	noun - an error or fault
sentence /ˈsɛntəns/ A2	noun - a group of words expressing a complete thought
subject /ˈsʌbdʒɛkt/ B1	noun - the topic or the part of a sentence that performs the action
helping /ˈhɛlpɪŋ/ A2	adjective - providing assistance
main /meɪn/ A2	adjective - primary or chief
type /taɪp/ A2	noun - a category or kind
tense /tɛns/ B1	noun - a form of verb indicating time
explain /ɪkˈspleɪn/ A2	verb - to make something clear
teach /tiːtʃ/ A1	verb - to give knowledge or instruct
understand /ˌʌndərˈstænd/ A2	verb - to comprehend or grasp
create /kriˈeɪt/ B1	verb - to make or produce
quiz /kwɪz/ A2	noun - a short test or examination