What did you____? / Did you_____?
(In conversation, questions often come in pairs)

    A few years ago, I was at a conference in Nara and heard a presentation by Professor Michael McCarthy from Nottingham University in the UK. Professor McCarthy has done a lot of interesting research into natural English conversation and at the Nara conference, he taught me something very interesting.
      In the classroom, I have often taught students to ask questions like, "What did you do last weekend?" "What are you doing at New Year?" Professor McCarthy said taht when we ask questions like this, we often ask two questions one after another. Here are some examples:

    A: What did you do last weekend? Did you go anywhere interesting?
    B:  No. I just stayed home and watched some DVDs

    A: What are you going to do this summer? Are you planning to go anywhere?
    B:  Yes. If I can, I'd like to go to Okinawa for a week or so.

    A:  What's your sister's new boyfriend like? Is he nice?
    B:  Well, yes, he seems very nice.

    Can you see what happens? People don't always ask just one question and wait for an answer. Instead, they often use this pattern:
    1. First, a wh- question (Wh- question means a question beginning with what, where, which, when, who, whose or how).
    2. Then, a related （関係あるの） Yes/No question (Did you..., Are you..., Is it...?)
    I thought about this and realised - "YES, THAT IS SO TRUE, but it's something I've never practised in the classroom."

    So, let's practise. Try the exercise in the next section and then click on the bottom to check your answers.

    Exercise

    For 3 years from 1981-1984, I was a teacher in a town called Batu Pahat in Johor State, Malaysia. In the summer of 2007, I returned to Batu Pahat with my wife, Ari, to meet some old friends. Below are examples of typical questions that people in Japan asked me about Batu Pahat.
      Please make pairs of related questions by matching a wh- question on the left with a yes/no question on the right.

    Example:
    What was the weather like in Batu Pahat? Was it very hot?

Wh- questions Yes/No questions
  •   What was the weather like in Batu Pahat?
  •   What are the people like?
  •   How about the language?
  •   What's the food like?
  •   How is the nightlife?
  •   Is it a safe place?
  •    Do most people speak English?
  •    Is it very spicy?
  •    Are they friendly?
  •    Was it very hot?
  •    Is there much crime?
  •    Is there a lot to do?
    Click here to check your answers and also to read some comments from me about life in Batu Pahat. Click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2008