English Intermediate B1 Part 1

Word Order and Question Forms in English

Hello. In this lesson, we’re going to learn how English sentences work. This is very important because English has a clear word order. When we understand the normal sentence order, it becomes much easier to make questions correctly.

Let’s start with simple sentences. In English, the usual order is Subject + Verb + Object. We often call this SVO. In Bulgarian, we can say: подлог + глагол + допълнение. The subject is the person or thing doing the action. The verb is the action. The object receives the action. For example: “I like music.” Here, “I” is the subject, “like” is the verb, and “music” is the object.

Here are more examples: “She watches films.” “They play football.” “We study English.” Notice that the subject comes first.

This is different from Bulgarian, where word order can sometimes be more flexible. В английския словоредът е по-строг. If we change the order too much, the sentence may sound wrong or confusing.

Now let’s move from sentences to questions. There are two main types in this lesson: yes/no questions and object questions. A yes/no question is a question we can answer with yes or no. For example: “Do you like music?” — “Yes, I do.” Or: “Does he smoke?” — “No, he doesn’t.”

In yes/no questions, we usually put an auxiliary verb before the subject. In Bulgarian, we can call this a помощен глагол. The order is: auxiliary verb + subject + main verb. For example: “Do you work?” “Does he smoke?” “Did they win?” The main verb stays in the basic form: work, smoke, win. We do not say: “Does he smokes?” because does already shows the present simple.

For the past simple, we use did. For example: “Did we win?” “Did she call?” Again, the main verb is in the basic form. We do not say: “Did she called?” We say: “Did she call?” Въпросът вече е в минало време чрез did, затова основният глагол не получава -ed.

Now let’s look at object questions. These questions ask about the object of the sentence. For example, in the sentence “You work in London,” we can ask: “Where do you work?” The answer is the object or extra information: “In London.”

The word order for object questions is: question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb. For example: “Where do you work?” “What did she say?” “When are they coming?” The question word can be where, what, when, why, who or how. Let’s compare a normal sentence and a question. Sentence: “She said something.” Question: “What did she say?” Notice the order: what + did + she + say. We use did because the sentence is in the past. The verb becomes say, not said.

With the verb be, we do not need do or does. We move am, is, are, was or were before the subject. For example: “They are at home.” becomes “Are they at home?” And “They are coming.” becomes “When are they coming?”

So, remember the basic idea. For normal sentences, use Subject + Verb + Object: “You study English.” For yes/no questions, use auxiliary + subject + verb: “Do you study English?” For object questions, use question word + auxiliary + subject + verb: “Where do you study English?”

Imagine English word order as a clear road. First, the subject starts the journey, then the verb shows the action, and then the object completes the idea. When you ask a question, the auxiliary moves forward to help you. I hope this lesson helps you feel more confident, ask better questions, and build English sentences step by step. Thanks for watching! Until next time.