Interrogatives are sentences that ask a question. Your students can use these activity sheets to learn all about interrogatives and the vocabulary words that signal them. Activities include distinguishing between interrogative and declarative sentences, rewriting sentences to form interrogatives, creating interrogative sentences from a given prompt, unscrambling sentences to form questions, and more. Answer sheets have been included for instructors when necessary, but please note that some answers will vary by student.
Fun Fact: The song "96 Tears" was recorded by Question Mark and the Mysterians. There's a rumor that lead singer Rudy Martinez legally changed his name to "?".
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How to Compose Interrogative Sentences
Interrogative sentences are question-based statements. In other words, sentences that ask some question (and have a question mark at the end) are considered this. Their types include direct and indirect, beginning with and without pronouns, comprising yes/no interrogatives, featuring tag questions, having alternative questions, etc.
The most common form of these types of sentences starts with an interrogative pronoun and concludes with a question mark. These types of pronouns include what, when, who, why, where, whom, whom, and which. In essence, they're usually words beginning with "wh."
Writing Interrogative Sentences
The order of words in an these types of sentences feature the primary verb and predicate coming before the subject. For instance, consider the sentence below.
"Who was the last team captain?"
Over here, "who" is an interrogative pronoun or question term. The primary verb is "was," while the subject is "the last team captain." Auxiliary verbs can also be utilized to compose these types of sentences. Look at the following example.
"Did he mean to come across as so miserly?"
In this one, the auxiliary verb (also called "helping verb") is "did." It changes the sentence from "he meant to come across as miserly" to the question-based statement you see above.
Types of Sentences
There are generally four types of sentences, including questions, statements, commands, and exclamations. These are briefly defined below.
Declarative
These are statement-based sentences. Declarative sentences usually state a fact, articulate some point, deliver information, provide an explanation, etc.
Imperative
These sentences address an implied second individual. Imperative sentences typically carry a request, instruction, command, or invitation.
Exclamatory
Exclamatory sentences convey emotions and express excitement. They typically comprise a subject and have an exclamation mark at the end.
Interrogative
As mentioned at other points in this piece, such sentences ask a particular question and have a question mark at the end.
Some Variations of Interrogative Sentences
These types of sentences have a few different types. The questions asked in such statements can be direct or indirect, require yes/no answers, etc. Rhetorical questions also fall under the umbrella of interrogative sentences.
Direct Questions
Direct questions like, "Which t-shirt goes well with this pair of jeans?" are among the most common forms of interrogative sentences.
Indirect Questions
Such statements typically use a modal verb. Here's an example.
"Would you be available to help me?"
There is less directness in the above sentence compared to the following.
"Will you help me?"
In the first example, "would" serves as the modal verb. Other modal verbs that convey modality or possibility include should, could, would, can, might, shall, must, and may.
Yes/No Questions
The query, "Do you remember every dream you've ever had?" is an example of a yes/no question. The answer has to be either "yes" or "no."
Alternative Interrogative
Here's an example of this type of sentence:
"Are you more interested in whales or elephants?"
Such statements are also called "choice-based questions" because they allow the listener to choose between two or more options. "Are" is the auxiliary verb here.
Rhetorical Question
Consider the example below.
"Can you believe she did that?"
Such questions are rhetorical, as the speaker isn't looking for a direct answer. Such interrogative sentences are used to emphasize a particular idea or emotion. In the above example, that's disbelief at the subject's actions.
Tag Question
Terms like "shouldn't it?" and "does it?" are usually referred to as tag questions. They're used in interrogative sentences to seek confirmation from someone about something that the speaker believes is true. Below is an example.
"She put you up to it, didn't she?"
At the end of the above example, the term "didn't she?" is the tag question.
