What are alternative questions in English?

How to ask a question in English? It seems that it is very simple, but beginners do not always cope with this task. The fact is that it is not enough to understand what you need to ask about, it is still necessary to correctly do this from the point of view of grammar. In fact, it's not so difficult if you understand the general principles of constructing interrogative sentences.

Classification

In English, several types of questions are traditionally distinguished.

• Common. The answer to it will serve as consent or refusal. Reverse word order: Do you work in the office?
• Special. At the same time, question wh-words are used. Where do you work?
• Separating. In this case, the sentence is divided into two parts: statement + question. Sometimes this type is also called "with a tail". When you translate, the ending is usually passed by the turn "is not it?": You work in the office, do not you?
• Indirect. This type has a special structure. It has a direct order of words, and it itself is considered a more polite and formal form of communication: I wonder if you work in the office.
• Alternative. Finally, this type implies choosing between two or more, usually mutually exclusive, possibilities: Do you work in the office or at home?

It is the alternative type of question that will be considered in detail today. In the English language course, it is rarely emphasized, and even in such a seemingly simple construction it is not so difficult to make mistakes. And although this does not happen so often, knowing some of the subtleties of foreign speech is interesting and useful - further it increases the level of language proficiency, which allows you to speak it as well as its speakers do.

Features of the alternative type

We often have to make a choice or offer it to others. As is clear from their name, alternative questions in English bear this function. As a rule, they contain two components, that is, there are two roughly equivalent possibilities to choose from.

Like almost all other issues, this kind of inherent reverse order of words, that is, the subject comes after the predicate or verb-bundle. By the way,
Sometimes there are designs combining the signs of several types. What do you like: tea or coffee?

To connect alternative questions in English can be both additions and complex grammatical constructions with a predicate: Do you prefer playing the piano or reading books? In either case, the proposal will contain the union or .

The unequivocal answer "yes" or "no" in this case is not applicable. This is the difference of this type. The response replica must be grammatically complete. In colloquial speech, it is possible to simply say "Reading books" , although this will not be correct.

As for the use of construction in oral speech, alternative questions in the English language have a well-established pattern of intonation coloring. Traditionally before or voice is raised, sometimes placing an emphasis on the union itself and the second part, and at the end of the sentence, and especially on the last stressed syllable, the tone goes down.

Education

As it became clear, alternative questions in the English language are built on the principles of the general, but link several options, one of which will serve as a possible response. As a rule, the second part is incomplete, since a complex construction with a common predicate is omitted.

His scheme is as follows:

Binding verb + subject + predicate + variant 1 or variant 2?

As a response, you can apply the sentence according to the following scheme:

Subject + predicate + variant 1 (2).

If both proposed possibilities are not suitable, then the reaction will be:

None of it + subject + predicate + variant 3.

To construct alternative questions in English it is possible and to the subject. This version sounds somewhat strange, but grammatically remains true:

Bundle + subject 1 + predicate + or auxiliary verb + predicate 2?

Examples

Do you drive the car or does your husband?

Is Ann here or is Jenny?

The main thing in this case is not to forget about the auxiliary verb before the second subject. The answer to the question of such a construction can be brief:

My husband does.

Ann is.

The study of the theory can be extremely exciting, but the study of language is impossible without a constant and varied practice. The same applies to the development of the topic "alternative issues". The English language offers a large number of options for the transmission of a particular thought, but what about the Russian? Interpreters are primarily interested in adequacy and semantic equality. So how is it best to reproduce this type of questions so that the meaning is not lost?

Transmission in Russian

Usually this is not a problem. Despite the fact that alternative questions in English, unlike Russian, use reverse order of words in their constructions, translation rarely causes difficulties. Union or successfully replaces "or":

Do you work in the office or at home?

What do you like: tea or coffee?

Do you prefer to play the piano or read books?

Do you drive a car or your husband?

Is there Anne or Jenny?

Obviously, the constructions of such questions are similar both in Russian and in English, with the exception of the absence in the last verbs-bundles in such an explicit form. By the way, here they are also of the same type - they are also called alternative. So the idea that all languages are related in some ways may not be meaningless.