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Interrogative sentence
Running head: Interrogative sentence- English and Vietnamese
Structure and usage of question in
English and Vietnamese
Nguyễn Phương Thụy
Class 5CQBT
University of Pedagogy
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Interrogative sentence
Introduction
We can assert that language plays a significant role in the historical developmment of
human society. We use it to communicate, to exchange information with each other.In the world
there are more than two hundred languages and each language has its own feature. Linguists
have made a lot of efforts to find out the relationship beetween them. In this paper, I mainly
concentrate on presenting the observation of comparision between two languages- English and
Vietnamese in terms of interrogative sentence. It aims to indicate the similarities and differences
in question between English and Vietnamese.With this research, I hope that it will help my
readers to avoid making grammatical mistakes in their translation.
Definition
According to Le Quang Thiem, a Vietnamese linguist “ Interrogative sentence is used in
daily communication as well as in our thinking to search for unknown information” ( 222).
Another author states that “ A question (interrogative sentence) asks about some missing
information the speaker would like to have” (sites.google.com). Actually, like other abstract
things, no one can give the accurate definition that satisfies the others. Howerver, as we all
know a question is a request for information or action. When writing a question, you should
always end the sentence with a question mark (?).
Construction of English and Vietnamese question
In English, interrogative sentence can be classified as five basic types:
1.Yes-No questions
2.Wh-questions
3.Alternative questions
4.Declarative questions
5.Tag questions
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Interrogative sentence
And in Vietnamese, we have the eqivalents as follows:
1.Câu hỏi tổng quát
2.Câu hỏi có từ nghi vấn
3.Câu hỏi lựa chọn
4.Câu hỏi dùng ngữ điệu
5.Câu hỏi láy lại
In form, questions in English and Vietnamese are virtually different. Most of the word
order in English question is reserved. Normally we use auxilary, modal verbs or tobe and
transfer them to the position before the subject to form an interrogative sentence. We also add
wh-word at the beginning of the sentence to set up a wh-question. Each kind of question uses
intonation as well as possible. Whereas, the word order in Vietnamese question has the same
form as positve sentence ( S-V). We usually use rhetoric to form an interrogative sentence,
instead of intonation.
We will step by step analyze five types of question in English with examples and make an
inference in Vietnamese.
Yes-No questions
Affirmative questions
In meaning, both English and Vietnamese use this kind of question to ask whether
something is true or not,i.e.,
A: Are you a student? Cậu là sinh viên phải không?
B: Yes, I am
Vâng, em là sinh viên.
A: Does he live in Quang Ngai? Ông ấy sống ở Quảng Ngãi à?
B: No, he doesn’t.
Không phải.
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Interrogative sentence
As we see in the two above examples, the questioner apparently wants to confirm the
information which he has got is right or wrong.
In addition, in both languages we can answer by completey rejecting if the assumption of
the question is unreasonable.
A: Is he a doctor?
( English)
B: I don’t know who is .
A: Hôm nay cậu khỏe chưa?
( Vietnamese)
B: Tớ đâu có bệnh đâu mà khỏe hay chưa.
However, the rule to form an interrogative in two languages is different. As discussed
above, the word order in Vietnamese question is similar to that of an affirmative sentence S-VO…? Because it is often said that there is no tense in Vietnamese sentences so making a
question will be easier than in English, no auxilary verbs added. There is the combination of
particle modalities such as à, ạ, hả, nhỉ, nhé, thế, ư, sao, chứ and pairs of adverbs:
có….không,có…chưa, có…phải…không…, ….phải không, đã….chưa,….to form a Yes-No
question and we don’t raise tone at the end of the sentence. Although these words have the
same function, in some extent they cannot be exchangeable. It also depends on the context, the
social relationship between the speaker and the listeners (formal or informal), and the aims of
the speakers.
For example, when a mother asks her dauhgter “ Con đang làm gì thế ?” or “ Con đang
làm gì vậy hả?”( What are you doing?) to show her positve or negative attitudes towards her
daughter. The first sentence expresses her passion and concern, but the second one implies a
scolding- her daughter is doing something wrong. In another example, you want to ask someone
whether they eat more or not. It is more formal and sensitive to say “ Bạn ăn chút xíu nữa nhé ?”
rather than “ Bạn có muốn ăn nữa không ?” (Would you like to eat more ?)
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Interrogative sentence
Unlike Vietnamese, to form a Yes/No question in English we put “auxiliary verb”, or “tobe”
before the subject and the main verb following the subject. If there is no auxiliary verb, as in the
Present Simple and Past Simple, then you add one (in both these cases, the auxiliary verb do).
In addition, when an auxiliary verb (including modals) is used, the main verb is not inflected (no
“s” or “ed” ending), meaning that either the base form or past participle is used. We use a rising
intonation at the end of the sentence. Here are some examples to illustrate what has just been
discussed.
“She is successful in her life”.( affirmative) ( Cô ấy thành công trong cuộc sống)
→ “Is she successful in her life?” ( interrogative) ( Cô ấy có thành công trong cuộc sống
không?)
“You have to leave now”. ( affirmative) ( Bạn phải đi ngay bây giờ)
→ “Do I have to leave now?” ( interrogative) ( Tôi phải đi bây giờ ư ?)
One more thing we should pay attention is that sometimes Yes/No questions in English,
especially when it begins with modal verbs, are used to make an invitation, a request, a
suggestion or to ask permission. Now take a look at these two examples: “ Would you like to
come to the party?” and “Could you wait a moment please?”. The first sentence is actually an
invitation and an English will respond “ I’d love to” or “ Sorry, but unfortunately I’m busy then”.
The second one is basically a request and the answer may be “ No problem”. Meanwhile, in
Vietnamese we rarely use the form of Yes-No questions for these purposes.
In the table below, the author gives us the structure of Yes-No question in English with
some examples. It includes the question beginning with auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and to be.
(“ Questions”, n.d.)
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Interrogative sentence
Tense
Present Simple
Question Element
Do
Does
Examples
Do I play?
Does she play ?
Past Simple
Did
Did I play ?
Present Progressive
Am
Is
Are
Am I playing ?
Is he playing?
Are we playing?
Past Progressive
Was
Were
Have
Has
Was I playing?
Were they playing?
Have you played?
Has she played?
Present Perfect
Present Perfect
Have+Subject+been
Have you been playing ?
Progressive
Has+Subject+been
Has she been playing ?
Past Perfect
Had
Progressive
Had+Subject+been
Future Simple
Will
Future Perfect
Will+Subject+have
Conditional
Conditional perfect
Modals
Would
Would+Subject+have
Can
Should
Had they played ?
Had she been playing ?
Will I play ?
Will he have played ?
Would she play ?
Would she have played ?
Can I play ?
Should I play ?
Negative questions
“Negative questions” are interrogative sentences which contain negation in their
phrasing. Both English and Vietnamese have equivalent. English and Vietnamese have the
same rule to form a question in their sentences. In English, to form a negative question, “not” is
placed after an auxilary verb or “be” . Similarly, in Vietnamese, we have the word “không” placed
before main verb combining with particles to mark a negative question.
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Interrogative sentence
Don’t you like eating banana
Bạn không thích ăn chuối à?
However, the way to answer this kind of question is what we need to consider. In English
the interrogator would like to have an affirmative answer rather than answer confirmly.
Whereas in Vietnamese, the interrogator wants to receive an answer which is suitable to the
situation.
Moreover, in English we say Yes-agree and No- disagree, but in Vietnamese the answers
are usually: vâng, dạ, chưa, không depending on the context ( formal or informal). When
someone raises a question: “ Can’t you speak French?”( Bạn không biết nói tiếng Pháp à?), and
actually you can speak French, what would you say? An English man will reply “Yes, I can”. But
a Vietnamese will say “ Không , biết chứ” ( No, I can) and if he cannot speak, he says “ Vâng, tôi
không biết” ( Yes, I can’t) while an English says “No, I can’t”. Therefore, be careful when
answering a negative question in two languages.
Wh-questions
Wh-subject questions
In English, a Wh-subject question is an open question, meaning that it can have any
number of answers. It asks about missing information the speaker needs about the subject of
the sentence ( performer of the action). A question element needs to precede the subject in
order to form this question. To form a subject Wh-question in English, we replace the subject
with a question word, using who ( for people) or what, which ( for non-people). The word order is
that of a positive sentence: “Subject + Verb + Object ?”. There is no auxiliary verb in Whquestions in the Present Simple and Past simple tenses. The question word simply replaces the
subjects. In the present tenses, the verb is always in the third person singular, using the
appropriate verb form.
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Interrogative sentence
The following table uesd as a review of Wh- subject questions with some examples in English.
(“Questions”, n.d.)
Tense
Question about
Example
Present Simple
People
Who plays there every week ?
Past Simple
Non-people
What made all that noise ?
Which bus went to the city center?
Present Progressive
People
Who is playing today ?
Past Progressive
Non-people
What was making all that noise ?
Present Perfect
People
Who’s written this essay ?
Modals
People
Who can help me ?
Like English, the word order in Wh-subject question in Vietnamese is as the same as that
of a statement:
Subject + Verb + Object?
In English, we use interrogative pronouns “ who” ,“ what” and “ which” to ask about
people and things. In Vietnamese, we also have equivalents: “ ai” ( who) for people; and “cái gì”,
“điều gì”, “chuyện gì”, “việc gì”…( what), nào, cái nào (which) for things.
What makes you cry?
Điều gì làm em khóc vậy?
Who has broken this glass? Ai đã làm vỡ cái ly này vậy?
Which bus goes to the city center? Xe buýt nào đi vào trung tâm thành phố?
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Interrogative sentence
However, it doesn’t mean that question words in Vietnamese can be replaced by others. It
depends on the context and the subject that the speaker and listener want to mention. For
instance, we can say “ Điều gì đã làm bạn quyết định như vậy?”, but it sounds strange and
unusual to say “ Việc gì đã làm cậu quyết định như vậy?” ( What made you decide?).
Besides similarities, there are also some differences. In English we fall intonation at the
end of the sentence and there is a shift in meaning from asking object to asking reseason.
What happened to make you change? (Tại sao anh lại thay đổi như thế?)
What made him say all those things? ( Tại sao cậu ấy lại nói như vậy?)
In Vietnamese, we don’t use intonation, but one of the most interesting point in Vietnamese
grammar is the use of particles such as thế, như thế, như vậy ( as mentioned in examples
above). They themselves don’t make sense but they can change the meaning of the whole
sentence, expressing the speakers’ attitude to the things which are being said about. Most
mportantly, they are put at the end of the sentence to form a question.
Wh- object questions
Who, what, which mentioned above play the role of a subject, but in this case they turn
into an object. Similarly, we also have equivalents in Vietnamese: ai, gì, nào.
However, in English question words are placed at the beginning of the sentence. In
addition, we have to use operators such as auxiliaries, modals or tobe and transfer them to the
position before subject, and we have the form:
Wh-word – Op - O – V – S ?
Here are some examples of using this structure:
What are the other students called?
(Những sinh viên khác tên gì?)
Who are you talking about?
(Các bạn đang nói về ai vậy?)
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Interrogative sentence
Which continent did Columbus discover?
(Columbus đã khám phá ra Châu lục nào?)
In contrast to English, Vietnamese doesn’t fall intonation and doesn’t use operators in this
kind of question. Look at the examples and transition above; we can see that the interrogative
words are at the end of the sentence, which is totally opposite to English.
S – V – O – Wh-word ?
Other cases
Wh-words in both two languages have the form of reduction and they can be a single
word or a group of words, for instance, who ( ai), what ( cái gì), where ( ở đâu); what for (để làm
gì), why not ( tại sao không), where to ( tới đâu). Moreover, reason adjuncts in both languages
such as why ( tại sao), for what reason ( vì lý do gì), for which reason ( vì lý do nào) usually
stand at the beginning of the sentence and function as an adverb.
Why do you drink too much coffee?
Tại sao anh uống nhiều cà phê vậy?
For what reasons did you leave school so early?
Vì lý do gì mà bạn nghỉ học sớm?
However, in English the interrogative word “ when” only appears in the beginning of the
sentence and time in the answer depends on the tense used, for example,
A: When are you going to get married?
( 1)
B: Next year.
A: When did you get married?
( 2)
B: Two years ago.
In the example ( 1), the tense is used in the question is near future, so time in the answer is in
the future ( next year : năm tới); and in the second one time in the answer is in the past (two
years ago: hai năm trước) because in the question we use simple past tense.
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Interrogative sentence
On the contrary, in Vietnamese the words such “ khi nào, bao giờ, lúc nào” are put both
at the beginning and the end of the sentence. When standing at the beginning, they indicate that
the action will happen; and in the case of being placed at the end, they show us that the action
happened. This is also a typical feature in Vietnames grammar.
A: Khi nào em tốt nghiệp đại học? ( in the future)
B: Sang năm.
A: Em tốt nghiệp đại học khi nào? ( in the past)
B: Năm ngoái.
In addition, when asking about means of transport, in English we use “ How” ( như thế
nào); but in Vietnamese we say “ By what” ( bằung phương tiện gì). For instance, an English will
ask “ How do you go to your office?”. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese says “ Anh đi làm bằng
phương tiện gì ?”. This grammar point is small, but it may cause problems to English
beginners.
Alternative questions
Alternative question is a type of question where the listener is asked to choose between
alternatives. E.g. Would you like tea or coffee? Will you go by train or by air? In form, alternative
questions are similar to yes/no interrogatives, starting with the finite operator and not containing
a question word. In function, they may be similar to wh-questions, in that they ask for a specific
piece of information to be filled in ( novalearn.com). Alternative question is quite popular in
English and Vietnames, so there are a lot of similarities between two laguages. Firstly, English
uses connective “ or” to link items together. Vietnamese also has similar words such as hay, hay
là; hoặc, hoặc là. But the nuance of meaning of “ hoặc” and “ hay” is different. To get more
understanding, let us consider these examples:
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Interrogative sentence
Anh chỉ có thể chọn hoặc tôi hoặc nó ? ( 1)
Anh học tiếng Anh hay Tiếng Pháp?
(2
Anh thích cà phê hay trà? ( 3)
From three examples above, we can infer that “ hoặc” is likely to be obligatory. It means
that you are involuntary to make a dicision. Sometimes, you have to select what you do not
really like. But “hay” sounds more voluntary. You are entitled to choose what you prefer or
maybe you can refuse it you do not like it at all. Looking back example (3), we can see that it is a
question but at the same time it also an invitation. Therefore, the response may be “Coffee,
please”, or “ Thanks, but I do not drink tea or coffee”. Secondly, both English and Vietnamese
provide a lot of possibilities of choice, for example, you can say “Do you like watching TV,
listening to music or reading in your free time?” ( Bạn thích xem TV, nghe nhạc hay đọc sách lúc
rãnh rỗi?). Finally, the structure of alternative question in two languges has the form of reduction.
With this form, it makes the grammatical structure of alternative question in both languages less
complicated and our speech is more natural. E.g, instead of asking “ Does he likes apples or
does he like bananas?” or “ Does he like apples or like bananas?” (Nó thích ăn táo hay nó thích
ăn chuối?), we can simply say “ Does he like apples or bananas?”(Nó thích ăn táo hay ăn
chuối?).
However, the structure in two languages is a litle bit different. As mentioned above, in
English, alternative question normally starts with the finite operators and we raise intonation on
each alternative except for the final one which has falling intonation, as Would you like coffee,
tea, or soda? Unlike English, alternative question in Vietneamese does not have intonation and
its structure, again, is the same as a statement.
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Interrogative sentence
English:
Vietnamese:
Op
S- V-
C-
O or
V- B
hay
O?
B?
( Lê Quang Thiêm 2004: 236)
Declarative questions
Declarative questions, or rising declaratives were used because they have the
syntactic form of a declarative, but have question-like intonation and distinct discourse functions.
Both English and Vietnamese use declarative questions to request confirmation or to show
surprise, and the word order is that of a statement. In addition, this kind of question is common
in spoken language and in informal situation or close relationship, for example,
That’s the boss? I thought he was the cleaner. Sếp đó hả ?Tôi tưởng ông ta là người
quét dọn chứ.( 1)
You want to build a new house? Cậu muốn xây nhà mới à ? (2)
You are going to the cinema tonight? Anh đi xem phim tối nay phải không?( 3)
Example ( 1) is sure of a conversation between two colleagues because it is impolite for an
employee to ask his superior by this question. Similarly, the conversations in example ( 2) and
(3) are between two friends.
Besides sharing somethings in common, English and Vietnamese daclarative questions
also have their own features. In English, we raise intonation at the end of the sentence.
Meanwhile, in Vietnamese, we have to use interrogative words: à, ư, hả, phải không…. as
mentioned in the examples above and we rarely use intonation because .
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Interrogative sentence
Without these words, a positve sentence cannot become a question although it has a question
mark and it sounds unsual, for example, a Vietnamese will be quite confused if a foreigner asks
him such question with final rising intonation “ Tối nay anh làm việc đến khuya?”
( You’re working late tonight?). Though declarative questions aren’t complicated, we should
notice, especically in English. Because its structure is different from other kinds of question.
Tag questions
Tag question is quite familiar with English and Vietnamese because two languages have
equivalent structures. We use it in spoken language rather than in written language to seek for
sympathy or confirmation. Here are some examples:
You haven’t seen Mary today, have you?
Hôm nay anh chưa gặp Mary phải không?
It was a good film, wasn’t it?
Đó là môt bộ phim hay phải không?
Most of the question tags in English can be translated into Vietnamese equivalents such as
… phải không; … đúng thế không? à?... (as cited in Le, 2004, p.238 ) , so the difference of two
languages is in the question tag. In English, the question tag is seperated form the whole
sentanse by a comma; in Vietnamese the tag is replaced by phải không, đúng không?, à?, ư?.
The forms of tag questions in two languages are as follows:
Vietnamese:
C- V → à ?
phải không?
phải238)
không?
( Lê Quang Thiêm 2004:
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Interrogative sentence
Positive statement
negative tag?
Snow is white,
Isn’t it?
Negative statement,
positive tag?
You don’t like me
do you?
English:
( englishclub.com)
However, sometimes the question tags in Vietnamese , for example, đúng không, được
không, có phải không, có phải thế không, phải không, có phải là, có đúng là, etc.… are
transferred to the beginning to emphsize speaker’s intention. They are usually connected or
seperated by a comma or a a stop, but sometimes they become a specific question. Look at
these examples:
Có đúng anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta?
→ Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta, đúng không?
→ Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta. Đúng thế không?
Furthermore Vietnamese also has such words à, ư, chứ placed at the end and phải
chăng, chắc chắn, chắc rằng… standing at the beginning to indicate the assumption or to
emphasize, for instance,
Chắc hẳn anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta?
Phải chăng anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta?
Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta ư?
In this part I just give a general view about tag questions in English to compare it with
Vietnamese. I will discuss it in more detail in the next section.
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Interrogative sentence
In a word, English has five ways of establishing the question while Vietnamese
shares some similarities with English but it also has its own special way. The general rules for
question is rather complicated and systematic in English. As language teachers, we have to
transmit the knowledge in a systematic way and then draw students’ attention, especially to the
differences of the two languages to help them overcome the language barrier. The most
important element of learning grammar is to use it. So, at the same time of comparing, we
should give many examples in both languages to help students familiarize and use the new
structure.
Teaching implication
Tag questions
A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a miniquestion. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a
"question tag” ( englishclub.com). I just want to remind you because this point has been
mentioned previously. As we discussed above, tag question is not a strange matter for
Vietnamese students because in our language, we also have the equivalent structure. It,
however, doesn’t mean that we can translate form one language into another language freely. In
English, there are some remarkable exceptions we should draw students’ attention, otherwise
they will be confused.
Firstly, how do we answer a tag question? Often, we say Yes or No. It is likely similar to
Yes- No question. Sometimes we may repeat the tag and reverse it ( …, do they? Yes, they do).
However, be very careful about answering tag question. Actually, it is more complicated than we
think becaue we have to base on the truth of the situation. Our answer reflects the real facts, not
necessarily the question. In English, normally, negative tags expect a Yes answer ( agree) and
positive tags expect a No answer ( agree).
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Interrogative sentence
In our language, an oposite system of ansewring is used, and we sometime answer the wrong
way in English. This can lead to a lot of confusion. In case of negative tags, two languages have
similar way of answer. Look at this example and its answers:
“ Mary is married, isn’t she?”
Yes, she has just married. ( Vâng, cô ấy vừa mới kết hôn)
No, she isn’t. ( Không, cô ấy chưa kết hôn)
In contrast to negative tags, the way to answer of a positve tag in two languages is
contradictory. For example, when a person raises a question like: “ This hat isn’t beautiful, is it?”
If an English agrees, he will say that “ No, it isn’t”. But a Vietnamese will reply “Vâng/ Đúng thế,
cái nón này không đẹp” ( Yes, it isn’t beautiful), and when he disagrees, the answer is “ Không,
cái nón này đẹp mà” ( No, it is beautiful) but an English says “ Yes, it is beautiful”. In a word,
when teaching tag question in English, we should concentrate on two cases – negative tag and
positive tag so that students can distinguish and use them effectively.
Secondly, meaning and intonation are what we should pay attention to. The meaning of
tag question depends on how you say it. With rising intonation, it is a real question.For example,
there are a lot of clouds in the sky. Because your mother is in the kitchen, she doesn’t know the
weather is fine or not, so she asks you “The weather is nine, isn’t it?” and actually your
answer is “ No, it isn’t”. But if our intonation falls, it sounds more like a statement that doesn’t
require a real answer. You are only inviting the listener to agree with you: “It is a nice day, isn’t
it?” “Yes, lovely”. Two examples above is somewhat grammatically the same, but the way to
answer is different. Vietnamese doesn’t have the similar situation because we don’t use
intonation so teachers have to present them to students.
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Interrogative sentence
Conclusion
Interrogative sentence is one of the most important and basic grammar points in English
and Vietnamese. Although two languages share some simlarities in constructing and using
question, there are also noticeable differences which hamper students from learning a new
language. Therefore, to help students master question in English, teachers should make a
comparison between English and Vietnamese , but emphasizing differences. Once students can
distinguish between English and Vietnamese interrogative sentence, they are able to use it
correctly as well as avoid common mistakes when translating from one language into another.
That is also the major purpose of teaching and learning English.
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Interrogative sentence
References
Le Quang Thiem. (2004). Ngôn ngữ học đối chiếu. Hanoi: Hanoi National University
Publisher.
Mai Lan Huong, Ha Thanh Uyen.( 2006). Giải thích ngữ pháp Tiếng Anh. Danang: Danang
Publisher.
Negative sentences and Questions in English. Oc,16,2009, from
http://sites.google.com/site/englishgrammarguide/Home/negative-sentences-and-questions-inenglish
Question formation in English- by Viv Quarry. Dec, 20, 2009, from
http://www.vivquarry.com/wkshts/question.html
Tag questions. Dec, 24, 2009, from
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm
Learning through comparing English and Vietnamese questions. Oc, 16, 2009, from
http://khoaanh.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=491
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