Negative Questions Flashcards
Negative questions are made with verb auxiliary to persuade, suggest, criticize.
Wouldn’t it be better to go tomorrow?
Why don’t we go out for a meal?
In formal contexts, we use NOT to emphasize the negative.
Did she not realize that she’d broken it?
Can you not get there earlier?
Negative questions with never, no, nobody, nothing, nowhere.
Why do you never help?
Have you nowhere to go?
More informally:
Why don’t you ever help?
Don’t you have anywhere to go?
Make suggestion:
Why not+verb
Why Don’t/doens’t+verb
Why not decorate the house yourself?
Why don’t you decorate the house?
Why didn’t tell me that in the first place?
Echo questions are used to make sure what we have heard. The intonation is upward.
Tala has lost her job. Tala has lost her job? (upward intonation).
A WH question can leave the THAT out after the verbs:
expect, hope, reckon, say, suggest, suppose, think.
When do you reckon you will finish the job?
What did you think was in the box? (don’t use that).
