Questions with “to be” in Present Simple

What’s up ABA friends!

In today’s blog we are going to look at the most important verb in English- “to be”. We will look at the use of this verb in interrogative form in the present simple.

Are there any rules?

It is very important to remember that the key when creating the interrogative form in this tense is the inversion of subject and verb from indicative to interrogative.

Examples:

• You are English = Are you English?
• He is very tired = Is he very tired?
• They are on holiday = Are they on holiday?

What happens if the indicative is in negative form?

Like before we still have to make an inversion by swapping the subject and verb in the indicative to create the interrogative. In this case however, the only difference will be the word “not” which does not move place

Examples:  

• You are not English = Are you not English?
• He is not very tired = Is he not very tired?
• They are not on holiday = Are they not on holiday?

You will see that in these examples “not” stays in the same place in both the indicative and the interrogative. Easy, right?

Is that all to remember?

The interrogative with the verb “to be” in the present tense is created solely by the inversion which means that there is no need to memorise lots of grammar rules. If you would like more help with this or more, sign up for free today!