If there is more than one auxiliary verb, the first auxiliary comes at beginning of the clause, followed by the subject and then other auxiliaries and the main verb.
Has the problem been reported?
Have they been waiting long?
wh-questions
If you are using the present simple or past simple form of be, the verb goes after the wh-word and in front of the subject (see 5.24).
How was your meeting?
Where is the customer?
So where were your auditors during all of this?
If you are using the present simple or the past simple of any verb except be, you put do, does, or did in front of the subject (see 5.24).
Which department did you want?
Who do you work for?
How did she make the decision?
What does he really think about the deal?
When a wh-word is the subject of a verb, or when it forms part of the subject, the word order is the same as in an affirmative clause (see 5.23).
Who invited you?
What happened earlier on?
Which bid won?
other types of question
You can use indirect questions like Can you tell me, Could you tell me, Do you know and Have you any idea in order to be more polite.
For yes/no questions, you use if or whether followed by a clause with affirmative word order.
Can you tell me if he got my message?
Do you know whether the units have arrived?
For wh-questions, you use a wh-word followed by a clause with affirmative word order.
Could you tell me what you’ve got on today?
Have you any idea what it would cost?
You can ask for confirmation that something is true by making a statement, and then adding a question tag such as isn’t it? or doesn’t she? (see 5.15 to 5.20).
They work on Saturdays, don’t they?
You can park there, can’t you?
You can use a negative question to express surprise at a situation.
Didn’t you arrange to meet them at the airport?
Wasn’t the meeting at nine?
Haven’t you finished yet?
Talking about experience
talking about the present
You use the present simple to talk about permanent facts and routines (see 4.9 to 4.11).
We offer a wide range of services for the bio industry.
Every week, Susan drives to Edmonton for a meeting with the factory manager.
The first thing we do is a site survey.
You use the present progressive to talk about current situations when you want to emphasize that they are temporary or in progress at the time of speaking (see 4.17 to 4.19).
We are updating our flight rules to adapt to the new scenario.
Users are looking at other ways of financing IT projects.
He’s staying there as the guest of our Taiwan-based supplier.
talking about finished past situations
If you want to talk about a situation or an event that happened at a particular time in the past which is finished, you use the past simple. Time expressions like last week and a year ago, which refer to finished time periods in the past, can be used to make the time reference clear (see 4.27 to 4.29).
Ballmer flew to California last week and proposed the merger.
After Harvard, he studied at Oxford University.
Ms. Caridi previously worked in the legal department at Lehman Brothers.
You use the past progressive to emphasize an action in progress or to give the background context for events (see 4.31 and 4.32).
The plant was making a profit of $250,000 a year and the market was growing steadily.
talking about past situations in relation to the present
The present perfect simple can be used to talk about:
You cannot use time expressions like yesterday, last year, or at Christmas with the present perfect simple (see 4.33 to 4.35).
Yes, I’ve bumped into him a number of times.
We’ve met with all the major shareholders.
Spending has risen steadily since the beginning of the year.
Have you brought the report with you?
You use the present perfect progressive:
We have been looking for a European partner for some time.
The company has been working hard to reduce its overhead.
talking about a particular time in the past
If you want to show that one event happened before another in the past you can use the past perfect (see 4.37).
When people left the meeting, they were more enthusiastic than when they had arrived.
Before the negotiations started, they had decided to give employees a 4% pay rise.
Negotiating
Making and modifying proposals
softening the message
You can use comparatives to show that you are prepared to negotiate on a particular point (see 2.103 to 2.111).
We need a more flexible arrangement.
I’m looking for figure closer to three dollars sixty a unit.
Would you be happier with a fixed rate?
You can use the modals would, could, may and might to make your message less direct.