Asking questions: mastering subject and object questions

Asking questions β€” a B1 English lesson. Practise forming subject and object questions and expand vocabulary around grammar concepts.

Asking questions: mastering subject and object questions

Summary

This ESL lesson for B1 English students explores English grammar, questions. Using a real video as the basis for discussion, students develop reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills across a 90-minute class.

The grammar focus is Subject and object questions. Key vocabulary includes structure (noun), subject (noun), verb (noun) and more, all drawn directly from the source material. The practical English section gives students useful phrases for real-life situations: When you are learning new grammar rules or discussing complex topics, it's important to ask questions to ensure you understand correctly..

Activities

00:01 welcome back everybody this is Mark again and I'm here to tell you about some different kinds of questions in English.
00:10 If you've watched our other videos, we've talked about the structure of questions, how to make questions in English.
00:16 Matt just did a video recently about questions using be verbs.
00:22 I've done a video about using do and does to make questions.
00:26 But today I want to show you two different kinds of questions we often see when we're using English.
00:34 So I'm just gonna start, give you a nice simple sentence right here: Mark teaches English.
00:40 Alright again, my name is Mark, I teach English.
00:44 And for us basics, a basic English sentence right, we have three pieces right, very simple.
00:50 We have our subject, we have our verb, and we have our object, right?
00:57 Subject Mark, the action teach, and then what do I teach?
01:05 Verb teaches what? Teaches English.
01:10 So now if I have this sentence, what if the subject disappears?
01:13 What if I have this information?
01:16 I have the verb information and the object information, teaches English, but I don't know the subject.
01:25 For this we can make what's called a subject question, and this is actually quite simple.
01:31 We keep the verb, keep the object, verb object, and we just use a question word like who, because Mark, Mark, I am a person.
01:46 I have a person, so we have to use who, right?
01:47 We use who for people, so easy.
01:51 Mark teachers English, don't know who teaches English.
01:55 Oh, who teaches English?
01:57 Mark teaches English.
01:59 I have learned the important missing information, now I know the subject, subject question.
02:09 But how about if I know Mark? Mark's okay, I know the action teaches, okay, but I don't know the object.
02:14 Mark teaches, hmm, I don't know.
02:21 Right, Mark teaches, so if I want to know the object, we use an object question, or a non-subject question.
02:29 Right, for this we have to use one of these special words, right?
02:32 If it's sup, if it's English, English person, no, English is a thing or an idea.
02:40 So we do, what does Mark teach?
02:42 I'll use the what, the question word about English teaches what? What, what does Mark teach?
02:52 If you see this 'does', you like, what is this?
02:54 This is one of our grammar words that we use when we make questions, it's called an auxiliary verb.
02:58 You'll see these very very often because Mark, Mark, I'm a, I'm a 'he', right?
03:05 I'm a 'he', Mark.
03:06 What does Mark teach?
03:10 So because Mark is a person, I would use the 'he', right?
03:14 'Does' with 'he'.
03:14 Also 'woman', right?
03:16 We could say 'does she'.
03:17 'It', right?
03:18 On it, animal or I don't know, 'it', we also use 'does it', okay?
03:24 If you have I, you, we, they, if I wanted to change, I ask you, right?
03:32 What do you write?
03:39 If I said that, what do you study?
03:43 Same idea, I know you, I know the subject, I know the action study, I want to know the object, right?
03:49 You study, hmm, you study what?
03:54 What do you study?
03:54 So, so now yeah, that's the basic overview for you guys.
03:59 Again, like most of our videos, if you liked this, please comment below.
04:06 You can think about any sentence, right?
04:07 You could say, I am from Japan.
04:10 Who's from, who is from Japan, from Japan, right?
04:13 I'm from Japan.
04:14 Who is from Japan?
04:16 Right, you can try to make some different questions using these patterns, okay?
04:21 Against, but that's it, I'll see you guys next video.
04:24 Hope you have a wonderful week and until then, keep speaking English.

Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces B1-level words and phrases related to English grammar, questions. Key terms include structure (noun), subject (noun), verb (noun), object (noun), question word (noun phrase). Students practise using these terms in context through exercises drawn from the source material.

Grammar focus

This lesson focuses on Subject and object questions. In English, questions can be about the subject of a sentence or the object. A subject question asks who or what performs the action.

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B1 English: Master Subject vs Object Questions
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