Open Questions (WH)

An Open Question is differente from a Closed Question. In an closed question, the reply (response) is limited to yes or no. However, an open question is used to obtain more specific information. All you have to do is open your question with a WH question.

Below you can see a list of some basic WH questions, as well as their purpose in an open question.

Question	Purpose	Example
Who	Name or Person	Who is she?
What	Profession or Occupation	What is he?
How old	Age	How old are they?
Where	Place or Location	Where is Los Angeles?
Where - from	Place of Origin	Where is Microsoft from?
When	Time	When is your birthday?

Interrogative Sentences

Closed Questions and Open Questions are both called: Interrogative Sentences. Make sure to follow the Subject-Verb-Inversion from the previous lesson. Feel free to review the previous lesson before you continue, if necessary.

Remember you can practice this lesson by clicking on the orange at the end of the lesson.

Who

Use WHO for a person or people. The answer to this question is always the name of a person or people.

A: Who is your favorite actor? - B: Leonardo Dicaprio. A: Who is it? - B: Your girlfriend! Open the door please, I need to pee.

What

"What" is probably the most famous word in the English language."What" is a universal question and it has multiple applications, but for now the principal one is Occupation or Profession.

A: What is your brother? - B: He's an Engineer. A: What are you? - B: I'm a teacher.

How old

"How" alone is a very flexible question, but this particular combination "How old" is used to know the age of someone or something. "How old" is useful to determining if someone is young or old or if something is old or new.

A: How old is your brother? - B: He's 28 years old. A: How old is your car? - B: It's a 2016 model.

Where

"Where" alone is the question for place or location. The answer usually uses a connector like at, in or on.

A: Where is monitor? - B: It's on the desk. (Phone-call) A: Where are you? It's almost midnight! - B: I'm at grandma's house.

"Where" also expects answers like Here or There

A: Where is monitor? - B: It's there. (Phone-call) A: Where are you? It's almost midnight! - B: I'm here at grandma's house.

Where - from

"Where" together with "from" creates a unique combination used to determine the place of origin or someone or something.

A: Where is Microsoft from? - B: It's from Seattle A: Where are you from? - B: I'm from Quito.

When

Use "When" for time. The answer usually uses a connector like at, in or on. Or expression of time like tomorrow, today, or now.

A: When is your birthday? B: It's on September 15th. A: When is the meeting? B: It's Tomorrow.

Conclusion: To be

At first, learning English can feel like an impossible mission, believe me, I know how you feel. "To be" is the most important pillar of this beautiful language of English, it's everywhere! Remember, you don't need to memorize this information, just make sure you test yourself by clicking on the exercises below.