Quiz televisivi

Interrogative Question Tags

Interrogatives

There are three main question types: Yes / No questions and Wh- questions

Then we have Indirect Questions that involve both the first and the second type.

Yes / No questions

Yes/No questions require yes/no answers and, for accuracy, the repetition of the auxiliary.

Ex.: Is Joan chatting with her boyfriend? (Yes, she is / No, she isn’t)

Has my e-mail arrived? (Yes, it has / No, it hasn’t)

Does your sister write e-mails? (Yes, she does / No, she doesn’t)

Can’t he swim? (Yes, he can / No, he can’t)

Look!

Yes / No questions normally contain words like any, anyone, anything and not words like some,someone, something:

Someone sent me an e-mail yesterday. Did anyone send you an e-mail yesterday?

They need some paper to print. Do they need any paper to print?

But…

Look at these questions:

Did someone send me an e-mail? (I was expecting an e-mail)

Haven’t I seen this notice somewhere before? (I’m quite sure I have)

These questions almost certainly require Yes answers, so they contain some- words instead of any-words.

Wh- questions

Wh- questions require information in the reply, something the speaker didn’t know before. These questions are introduced by the so-called wh- words:

• Who / Whom
• Whose
• What / Which
• When
• Where
• Why
• and How

Who (subject pronoun)

You want to know about a person or some people

Who’s that girl?

Who is it?

But…

Who works at this project?

Who goes to that University?

™ When who is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs

Whom (object pronoun)

It is the object pronoun form of who and it is formal

With whom did you go to the meeting? With my colleagues (formal)

Whose (possessive pronoun or determiner)

You want to know who something belongs to

Whose e-mail is this? It’s mine/it belongs to Bob

But…

Whose decision represents a turn-over in this agreement?

™ When whose is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs

What (pronoun)

You want to

know about something and not a person

What are they typing?

What sports do they practise?

But…What provoked this reaction?

™ When what is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs

Which (pronoun / determiner)

It is used instead of who (for people) and instead of what (for things) when the range of possibilities to choose from is limited.

Which of Congreve’s comedies have you seen? (pronoun)

Which book are you bringing with you? (determiner)

But…Which competition takes place on Sundays?

™ When which is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs

When (adverb)

You want to know the time at which something happens

When did my cousin graduate?

Where (adverb)

You want to know what place

Where has your girlfriend parked the car?

Where have you been (to)? (motion to a place)

Where do they come from? (motion from a place)

Why (adverb)

You want to know a cause; the answer is introduced by because

Why did you decide not to come to the party? Because it was too

Late and I was really tired

But

Look at this question:

What is your boyfriend training for? He is training for the traditional Christmas race™

When you want to know the purpose of an action, you do not say why, but what… for

Look at these questions:

Which Shakespeare’s play are you talking about? (informal)

About which Shakespeare’s play are you talking? (formal)™

When a Wh- question is part of a prepositional phrase, you choose between informal English (putting the preposition at the end of the question) and formal English (moving the preposition to the front)

How (adverb)

You want to know the way in which something happens or is done

How did she solved the problem?

But…

Look at these questions:

-How shall I type this letter?

-What shall I type this letter with?™

When you ask about the instrument, you can use both how and what…with

-How long are you studying here? Until next year™

When you want to know the length of time, you say how long

-How often do they go to

The dentist? Twice a year™ When you want to know about the frequency of an action, you say how often-How old are you?-How well do you know your work?™ When you want to know about degree or extent, you say how + adjective/adverb-How much is it?-How many books did you buy?™ When you want to know about quantity, you say how + much / manyNote that in prepositional phrases containing Wh- questions, you choose between informal English(putting the preposition at the end of the question) and formal English (moving the preposition to thefront)Indirect questionsLook at these questions:I asked my friend Mark if / whether he could lend me his computerI asked my friend Mark if / whether he was going to buy something for lunch.™ This kind of questions requires a normal word order, and not the interrogative inversion of subjectand verb (auxiliary)QUESTION TAGSA question tag is a mini-question that can be added at the end of a statement either to receive a realanswer (see examples 1) or to share

An opinion (see examples 2).

1. A: We've chatted before, haven't we?

   B: Oh, yes, we have. One month ago, more or less.

   A: I can't remember Jane's nickname, can you?

   B: Yes, I can: it's Janix.

2. A: That problem with your internet service provider wasn't really serious, was it?

   A: The website of our University is very useful when you need any information about the exams, isn't it?

Note that:

• A positive sentence has a negative tag while a negative sentence has a positive tag.
• In the tag we use an auxiliary verb.
• The meaning of the whole communicative interaction conveyed by the use of the question tag depends on the way you pronounce it:
  • If your voice goes up, you are making a question.
  • If your voice goes down, you don't really want any answer, but you are stimulating the listener to an agreement.

Don't forget!

Let's connect with the net, shall we?

Open the department's mail box, will you?

I'm late to chat with Eric, aren't I?

I?Text 1 th25 HourFilm: (2002)Directed by Spike LeeWriting credits: David Benioff (novel); DavidBenioff (screenplay)Genre: Crime/DramaTagline: Can you change your whole life in a day?One wrong choice... one last night...24 hours to live a lifetimePlot outline The 25th Hour depicts the last day of freedom for a young man before he begins serving aseven-year jail term for drug dealing. Prowling through the city until dawn with his two close malefriends and his girlfriend, he is forced to re-examine his life and how he got himself into hispredicament, which leads to a shocking, disturbing finale.Monty Brogan is about to start his last day of freedom before turning himself into the authorities andserving a seven-year term for drug dealing. He’s a charming young man who had always dreamed ofbeing a fireman, following in the working-class footsteps of his father, who has had to put up his bar inQueens as bond so that his son can stay out of jail until his sentence begins. Monty, named

For Montgomery Clift, does not know how he managed to get himself into this predicament. It was easy money and it carried so many perks, and you'll feel more than a little sympathy for this young man who has managed to kill his own dream for courtside seats at Madison Square Garden. But before he goes to prison, Monty wants to have one last night out on the town with his two best friends. Frank Slattery is a bond trader, one of the best and most successful risk takers in a very risky business. The other is Jakob Elinsky, an English teacher who envies his friends' lifestyles but who has no intention of ever giving up his job for the easy money, despite the disillusionment of teaching high school students in a tough school. The three young men enjoy the night into the early morning as they eat, drink, and visit the hottest spots in town. It's a sad night for Monty, but he has a plan that neither Frank nor Jacob know about - and it makes for a shocking ending to this.

brilliant and disturbing story.
Review by Ian Whitney

25th Hour has its share of visual artifice, but its story of Monty Brogan's (Edward Norton) last day of freedom before a seven-year prison sentence can be understood by anyone who has been forced to say goodbye. Monty's relationship with his city (New York), his father (Brian Cox), his girlfriend (Rosario Dawson) and his childhood friends (Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman) is antagonistic, he loves and hates them for their freedom. For Lee, a director permanently identified with New York (even if he is currently working on a TV show set in San Francisco), 25th Hour was prime material for making an archetypical New York film. 25th Hour in a post-9/11 New York, he captured the city in its utter isolation; a city that was the center of the world's concern but understood only by those who were there during and after the attacks. The love and hate in this film are

unspoken, the characters talk around New York and ground zero the same way they talk around Monty's upcoming imprisonment. They know their emotions, they don't need to explicate them. Maybe that's true to the characters but it makes things a bit tough for the audience. If you were in New York in 2001 and 2002 then I imagine the movie doesn't have to explain anything to you. If, like me, you were not, you may find yourself on the outside looking in, which is right where Lee wants you, I think.

These scenes—especially one with Hoffman and Pepper as they look down on the WTC clean up crew, talking as little as they can about what's staring them in the face—have a draw; they are honest and Norton's pained eyes along with Pepper's mixture of anger and love are all clearly communicated in the silence. But these are faint handholds in a slippery cliff of a movie. The plot needs some extensive explanation. Why, exactly, is a convicted felon wandering

1. Why is the film entitled 25 Hour?
2. The setting is New York City after September 11. Do you th