Hi everybody! What's up?
Let's talk a little bit more about asking questions with question words.
We've already seen that we use "where" to ask about location
and "when" to talk about time.
Also, we use "what" to ask for information,
and "how" to ask about manner.
In this class, we will expand the use of "what" and "how".
You'll see other meanings, uses and combinations of these question words.
Let's start by reviewing what we've already seen about "what".
See this example:
In this context, "what" is used to ask about information.
The person doesn't know what's on the bag, so, it's a general question.
Let's see another example!
In this one the context changes a little,
we do not know the passenger's destination,
so, we use "what" + the interrogative structure of the verb "to be"
Now, let's see some examples with the question word "which".
What is the function of "which"?
It's used to ask about choice between a limited number of options.
That's right, "what" and "which" may have the same function sometimes.
But the usage is different, what makes the difference is the context.
Imagine that you arrive at a huge airport, with several transport options,
so, you can ask your friend:
Here we use "what" and the verb "prefer" in the simple present interrogative form,
"Do you prefer?"
There are many options to answer,
car, subway, bus, taxi and so on.
But if you arrive at a smaller city with only car or bus, for example,
then you will say:
The purpose is the same, to ask about choice.
But we used "which", why? Simple!
The options are restricted.
Note that right after "which" comes the object I want to know about.
In this case, transportation.
Only then, the interrogative structure "do you prefer?"
Let's look at another example to make it really clear!
Although I didn't specify the options,
from context it's easy to guess that it's not just any bus,
but a specific line that'll take me to the hotel.
I also used the word "bus" right after "which",
and the sentence in the interrogative form.
"Can I get?"
In short, we have the structure "which" + noun + interrogative form.
So, when we have restricted options it's correct to use "which",
and with unlimited options, we use "what"!
Very well, let's see another question!
The subject of the action "bring" is "you", right?
"You" bring something in this bag.
I don't know what it is, so I ask you "what do you bring?"
I used "what" and the interrogative form of the simple present.
The auxiliary verb "do" + subject + verb + complement,
in this case, "in your bag".
Great! Now, see the sentence often used by the immigration agent!
In this case, there's no subject
because the question is exactly about "it".
By asking "it", the officer says he does not know the reason
for your coming to the United States.
Note that this question doesn't follow the structure
"what" + interrogative form.
Because it has no subject, we form the sentence in the affirmative
with the veb conjugated in the third person singular.
That is, subject + verb + complement.
And instead of the subject, I used "what".
then it goes "what"+ verb + complement.
An important detail, it's a third person singular question,
that is, "he", "she", "it".
So, I need to conjugate the verb and add "s",
The same thing happens to "which", check it out!
Here, the subject of the sentence is "I", since it's the doer of the action
"get the bus".
"Which" does not refer to the subject, but the bus I can take.
Therefore, we use the interrogative form.
Now look at this sentence:
The subject is bus, and it's the doer of the action
"take me to my hotel", that is, the bus takes me to the hotel.
And the question is "Which bus does it?"
So, "which" refers to the subject,
therefore, I do not use the interrogative form.
So how to form this question?
Well, think of a possible answer. For example:
"Blue" is the answer, right?
So, I take this part off and add "which" instead.
The rest of the sentence stays the same,
so, "which bus takes me to my hotel"?
Now let's see the question word "how"!
We know it's used to ask about manner, for example:
In this case, we used "how" + the interrogative form of the simple present.
Therefore, we use "do" as an auxiliary to build the question.
And one more thing!
"How" combines with many other words
to form question words with different meanings.
The first one is used to talk about quantity, "how many".
For example:
Note that we also use "how many" + the interrogative form of the simple present.
Pay attention!
Right after "how many" comes what I'm referring to,
in this case, bags.
So, it goes like this: "How many bags?"
And just like "which", we have the structure
"how many + noun + interrogative form.
Another possible combination is "how much".
It's used to ask about money or the cost of something.
Check it out!
In this sentence,
we use the interrogative form of the present continuous.
So, just add "how much" to the beginning of the sentence,
and right after, what I'm referring to.
In this case, money. So, we say "How much money",
It's the same structure, "how much" + the noun + the interrogative form.
See another sentence commonly used in a travel context.
In this case, we used "how much"
and the interrogative form of the verb "to be".
The word money is implied, as if I said:
But nobody talks like that, right?
Another question word is "how long",
which we can also use during trips.
It is used to ask about duration,
for example:
And we also use "how long"
and the interrogative form of the simple present.
The last combination with "how" we'll see for now is "how far",
We use it to ask about distance, take a look!
Note that, in English, we can use "how far" and the verb "to be"
in the interrogative form.
Simple, right?
Well, that's it for now guys!
Do those follow-up activities
and I'll see you all soon!
Bye!