230 Sentences 2. We should ask whom. 3. They are staying where. 4. The matter with him is what. 5. We can see her how soon. 6. They are staying how long. 7. They had planned to leave when. 8. The meetings are how long usually. 9. I should pay how much for it. 10. They would meet with us how often. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 230 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM Questions and Negatives 231 11. He had given what to them for Christmas that year. 12. We should care why what he thinks about it. 13. They would park the car where if the lot is closed. 14. Robert is doing what on earth in Cleveland. 15. We should call him what. To this point we have only worked with information questions that have been formed with verbs that can be inverted: modal auxiliary verbs, helping verbs, and be as a main verb. Now we will look at information questions that require do. There is nothing actually different about these questions, except that having to insert do adds one more step to the process. Let us start again with the two movement rules: 1. Move the interrogative pronoun to the fi rst position in the sentence. 2. Invert the verb and subject. Between these two rules, we need to apply the do insertion rule. That is, we insert do before the fi rst verb and transfer the tense of that fi rst verb to do. We then apply Rule 2 in the normal way. Here is an example: Statement: They left when. Rule 1: When they left. Do insertion: When they did leave. Rule 2: When did they leave? (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 231 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM 232 Sentences Note that did has picked up the past tense from left, causing left to revert back to its base form, leave. Here are several more examples using the do insertion rule: Statement: You want to go where. Rule 1: Where you want to go. Do insertion: Where you do want to go. (Note that do is in the present tense) Rule 2: Where do you want to go? Statement: They turned the offer down why. Rule 1: Why they turned the offer down. Do insertion: Why they did turn the offer down. Rule 2: Why did they turn the offer down? Statement: You called them how often about the meeting. Rule 1: How often you called them about the meeting. Do insertion: How often you did call them about the meeting. Rule 2: How often did you call them about the meeting? Exercise 13.9 Change the following statements to information questions using do insertion and the two move- ment rules. I missed what. Rule 1: What I missed. Do insertion: What I did miss. Rule 2: What did I miss? 1. They claimed how much in damages. 2. He demanded to see whom. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 232 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM Questions and Negatives 233 3. The decision depends on what. 4. Your cats reacted to your new dog how. 5. The kids want to do this weekend what. 6. You rented which movie. 7. She got to the offi ce when. 8. Roberta picked whom for the advisory committee. 9. You think that you will pick whose health plan. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 233 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM 234 Sentences 10. They plan to stay in Los Angeles how long. The way information questions in English are formed differs in two important respects from the way information questions are formed in nearly all other languages. Most languages convert statements to information questions by moving an interrogative pronoun to the fi rst position in the sentence. However, as you know, English also requires that the subject and verb be inverted and that we insert do if there is no other suitable helping verb to be the tense-carrying verb. Thus English requires two extra steps, both of which are complicated. Given that the process of form- ing information questions in English is both unusual and complicated, it is not surprising that mistakes in information questions are among the most common mistakes of nonnative speakers, even fl uent ones who rarely make other kinds of mistakes. In the following examples, the subject noun phrase is in italics and the helping verb is in bold. Error Standard X Where you are going? Where are you going? X When they will be back? When will they be back? X What they have done? What have they done? X Why he said that? Why did he say that? All of these mistakes result from stopping the process of converting statements to information questions after doing only Rule 1: move the interrogative pronoun to the fi rst position in the sen- tence. To correct these errors, speakers need to apply the do insertion rule (if necessary) and then, most critically, apply Rule 2 and invert the subject and the fi rst, tense-carrying helping verb. Exercise 13.10 Correct the errors in the left column and put the corrected form in the right column. Error Standard Why I should believe you? Why should I believe you? 1. When the program will start? 2. How I am doing? 3. What we have missed so far? 4. How much they are charging for it? (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 234 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM Questions and Negatives 235 5. Why he had so much trouble? 6. How early we could fi nish here? 7. Where we sign up for the program? 8. Whose advice you are going to follow? 9. What song they were singing? 10. How many parts I should order now? 11. What subject you teach? 12. What the problem was with my phone? 13. How they will recognize you? 14. When they should take the test? 15. Why the government requires that form? Up to this point we have ignored one type of information question: questions in which the interrogative pronoun plays the role of subject. Here are some examples with who playing the role of subject with all the different types of verbs: Modal: Who can take the dog for a walk? Who will take care of the children? Helping verb: Who is working on the Smith papers? Who has had lunch already? Be as main verb: Who is the visitor? Who was Alfred Smith? No helping verb: Who reported the accident? Who answered the phone? As y ou can see, these information questions seem to break all the rules: there is no inversion of subject and helping verb, and in the last pair of examples, do is not used when there is no helping verb. Obviously, there is something special that happens when the interrogative pronoun plays the role of subject. Basically, the two rules do not apply when the interrogative pronoun is the subject. To see why this is the case, let’s start with the following statement and try to apply the two rules: Who should go next. (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 235 3/16/09 12:34:23 PM 236 Sentences Rule 1 does not apply because the interrogative pronoun is already in the fi rst position in the sentence. If we apply Rule 2, we will produce an ungrammatical question because we will put the subject after the verb as though we were trying to create some strange form of yes-no question: X Should who go next? Thus, we cannot apply either Rule 1 or Rule 2 when the interrogative pronoun is the subject of the sentence. When the interrogative pronoun plays the role of subject, the underlying state- ment is already in the correct fi nal form for an information question and no further changes are needed (or even possible). Since only nouns can play the role of subject, the kinds of interrogative pronouns that can be subjects are necessarily limited to the following: Nouns: who, what, which Possessive nouns: whose, which ϩ noun Here are some more examples: Nouns Who told you the answer? What do you mean by that? Which is the right one? Possessive nouns Whose computer did you use? Which train should we take? A particularly diffi cult problem for native and nonnative speakers alike is choosing between who and whom in information questions. For example, which of the following is correct? Who did you want to see? Whom did you want to see? To determine which one is correct, we have to undo Rule 1 and move the interrogative pronoun back to where it came from: Rule 1: Who did you want to see? ⇒ You wanted to see who. By undoing Rule 1 we can see that who is the object of the verb see. Since it is an object pronoun, we must use whom rather than who. Thus, the correct form of the information questions is Whom did you want to see? (i-viiiB,001-328B) whl bk.indd 236 3/16/09 12:34:24 PM . However, as you know, English also requires that the subject and verb be inverted and that we insert do if there is no other suitable helping verb to be the tense-carrying verb. Thus English requires. Sentences 10. They plan to stay in Los Angeles how long. The way information questions in English are formed differs in two important respects from the way information questions are formed. steps, both of which are complicated. Given that the process of form- ing information questions in English is both unusual and complicated, it is not surprising that mistakes in information questions