English Grammar Drills

234 Sentences
10. They plan to stay in Los Angeles how long.
The way information questions in English are formed differs in two important respects from
the way information questions are formed in nearly all other languages. Most languages convert
statements to information questions by moving an interrogative pronoun to the first position in
the sentence. However, as you know, English also requires that the subject and verb be inverted
and that we insert do if there is no other suitable helping verb to be the tense-carrying verb. Thus
English requires two extra steps, both of which are complicated. Given that the process of forming
information questions in English is both unusual and complicated, it is not surprising that
mistakes in information questions are among the most common mistakes of nonnative speakers,
even fluent ones who rarely make other kinds of mistakes. In the following examples, the subject
noun phrase is in italics and the helping verb is in bold.
Error
X Where you are going?
X When they will be back?
X What they have done?
X Why he said that?
Standard
Where are you going?
When will they be back?
What have they done?
Why did he say that?
All of these mistakes result from stopping the process of converting statements to information
questions after doing only Rule 1: move the interrogative pronoun to the first position in the sentence.
To correct these errors, speakers need to apply the do insertion rule (if necessary) and then,
most critically, apply Rule 2 and invert the subject and the first, tense-carrying helping verb.
Exercise 13.10
Correct the errors in the left column and put the corrected form in the right column.
Error
Why I should believe you?
Standard
Why should I believe you?
1. When the program will start?
2. How I am doing?
3. What we have missed so far?
4. How much they are charging for it?