WH-Questions

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Wh- Questions
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• A Friendly Visit

Focus on Grammar 2 Part II, Unit 7 By Ruth Luman,
Gabriele Steiner, and BJ Wells Copyright 2006.
Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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A Friendly Visit 1
Dad, I think we have visitors.
Who are they?
Oh, theyre human beings.
Be kind, son. Their brains arent very big.
I dont know. Why are their heads so small?
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A Friendly Visit 2
Greetings from Earth. What is your language?
Our spaceship broke down. Where are we?
Why are you here?
Welcome to our planet. Would you like some iced
tea?
You are very far from home.
Our language is ??????. But I want to practice my
English.

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Function

• Wh- questions ask for information. They cannot be
  answered with a yes or no.

We are from Earth.
Where are you from?
Yes.
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Singular and Plural

• Use is for singular subjects and are for plural
  subjects.

singular
Where is your spaceship?
plural
What are your plans?
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Who

• Who asks about people.

person
Who are you?
person
Who is your leader?
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What

• What asks about things.

thing
What is your language?
things
What are your names?
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Where

• Where asks about places.

Where is your spaceship?
Where are we?
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Why

• Why asks for a reason.

Why are you here?
Why are their heads so small?
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Practice 1
With a partner, read the answers and ask
wh-questions.
Example
Who are they?
Where is he from?
Why are they happy?
What is his hobby?
The United States.
His hobby is soccer.
Theyre aliens.
Because they landed on the moon.
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Contractions

• We often use contractions for wh- questions with
  is in speaking and informal writing.

Where is the mustard?
Wheres
What is on TV?
Whats
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Answers

• We usually give short answers to wh-questions.
  We can give long answers too.

My skin is green because I eat a lot of broccoli.
Because I eat a lot of broccoli.
Why is your skin green?
short answer
long answer
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Practice 2
Use the clues to ask and answer wh- questions
with a partner.
Who is he?
Example
He is a doctor.
2. firefighter
1. spaceship
Where is she?
Who is he?
She is in a spaceship.
He is a fire fighter.
3. alien
4. he sees a spaceship
What is he?
Why is he scared?
doctor
He is an alien.
He sees a spaceship.
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References
Copyright 2006 Pearson Education and its
licensors. All rights reserved.