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Category: Question Forms

  • Indirect Questions (PDF)

    Indirect Questions (PDF)

    Indirect questions are the polite, professional alternative to direct questions — and one of the highest-leverage register shifts at B2. Where is the meeting room? becomes Could you tell me where the meeting room is? The key rule: no inversion, no auxiliary do / does / did — word order is subject + verb (statement order). Is the meeting still on? becomes Do you know if the meeting is still on? — using if or whether for yes/no questions. A bank of introductory phrases (Could you tell me…, Do you know…, I was wondering…, Would you mind telling me…, I’d like to know…) sets the polite register.

    This worksheet drills B2 use of indirect questions in workplace, customer-service, and academic contexts.

    What’s inside:

    • Grammar Box with the no-inversion rule, the if / whether yes/no marker, and the list of introductory phrases
    • Direct-to-indirect transformation: rewrite eight direct questions with statement word order
    • If or whether discrimination: choose between the two markers for yes/no indirect questions
    • Production: rewrite a set of casual workplace requests as polite indirect versions
    • Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes on register and the academic-writing use of indirect questions

    Common mistakes addressed: inversion kept in the indirect form (Could you tell me where is the office?), auxiliary kept (Do you know what does she mean?), missing if / whether in yes/no form (Do you know the meeting is on?), and missing question mark on the polite version.

    For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B2, in upper-intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Indirect questions are central to Cambridge B2 First (FCE) and C1 Advanced (CAE) Speaking — particularly the collaborative task, where polite formulations score directly on the Interactive Communication band. Part of the Question Forms collection — the natural sibling is Question Tags, which covers the casual-register counterpart to the polite form practised here.

  • Question Tags (PDF)

    Question Tags (PDF)

    Question tags are the short tags English adds at the end of statements to check for agreement or invite confirmation. She’s joining us tomorrow, isn’t she? They’ve already confirmed, haven’t they? You haven’t seen the report, have you? Three rules govern the system: positive statement → negative tag, negative statement → positive tag; the auxiliary in the tag matches the auxiliary in the main verb (or do/does/did if there isn’t one); and the subject pronoun in the tag must agree with the subject of the statement (He works here, doesn’t he? — never doesn’t it). Intonation matters too: falling tone for expected agreement, rising tone for genuine uncertainty.

    This worksheet builds B1 control of question tags through tag-completion, intonation, and error-correction tasks.

    What’s inside:

    • Grammar Box with the polarity rule, the auxiliary-matching rule, and the am → aren’t I exception
    • Tag-completion drill: 12 statements covering present, past, perfect, modal, and am auxiliary forms
    • Intonation marking: identify falling (expecting agreement) vs rising (genuinely asking) for ten tagged sentences
    • Error correction: subject mismatches (doesn’t it instead of doesn’t he) and missing tag inversion
    • Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes on the aren’t I fixed expression and intonation pairs

    Common mistakes addressed: subject mismatch (She works here, doesn’t it?), missing inversion in negative tags (She’s joining us, is she? when isn’t she? is meant), and amn’t I (should be aren’t I).

    For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B1, in intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Question tags are a B1 fluency marker tested in Cambridge B1 Preliminary (PET) Speaking and in casual-register Writing. Part of the Question Forms collection — the natural next step is Indirect Questions, which extends the question system into polite professional register.