WH Questions – and statement and Time expressions

WH questions are very common in English. The lesson below shows you how to use them correctly. You can find the exercises at the bottom of the page.

Let’s get started with the lesson. 

WH questions ask for information. Here are the six questions and their answers:

Question	Answer	Example
What	Thing	What is your name?
When	Time	When is the party?
Who	Person	Who is your brother?
Where	Place	Where is the bank?
Why	Reason	Why do you like pizza?
How	Directions	How do you spell your name?

WH Questions Structure

WH questions in the simple present use “do” or “be”. Take a look at the structure for each of these verbs.

Do

WH   +   DO/DOES   +   SUBJECT    +   VERB

Take a look at some examples:

• Where do you work?
• When does she wake up?
• Who is your brother?

Be

WH   +   BE    +    SUBJECT

Here are the examples:

• Where are you from?
• Who is that man?
• When is your class?

Exercise 1: WH Questions Test

Exercise 2: WH Questions Test 2

Exercise 3: Present Simple Wh Questions



TIME EXPRESSIONS 
Prepositions in expression of time

1. The preposition inmonths

• in July, in the month of July
  in September, in the month of September

• • years

    in 1996, in the year 1996
    in 2012, in the year 2012

  • seasons

    in summer
    in the summer, in the summer of '69

  • parts of the day

    in the morning
    in the afternoon
    in the evening

  • point of time in the future

    in a minute
    in a fortnight 
    in three weeks' time, in three weeks (only when not ambiguous)

• duration (within a maximum period)

  in a minute
  in two weeks

2. The preposition at

• parts of the day

  at (the crack of) dawn
  at night

• time of day

  at 6 (o'clock), at 7 p.m., at 18 hrs (24-hour clock: airports, the military)
  at midday , at noon 
  at midnight

• • festive seasons

    at Christmas
    at Easter

  • points in time

    at the weekend  (on the weekend, on weekends )
    at the time, at the same time

  3. The preposition on

• days

  on Sunday, on Sundays (Sunday: no preposition  journalese)
  on Good Friday
  on my birthday

• dates

  on the 25(th) of December*
  on December (the) 25(th)*
• 
  

• a particular part of a day

  on the morning of September (the) 11(th)* 

4. Other prepositions

• after (following)

  after school

• as of (starting), more formal than from

  as of tomorrow

• before (preceding a point in time, future or past)

  before Christmas

• between ... and (limits of a period)

  between Monday and Friday

• by (before, at the latest)

  by Thursday

• during (in the course of a period)

  during the day
  during the holidays  (during the vacation )

• for (duration, future or past)

  for up to 10 weeks
  for five minutes
  negated:
  not for* three weeks  (not ... in three weeks ) * increasingly being replaced by in
  after a superlative:
  the ...est for* two years  (the ...est in three weeks ) * increasingly being replaced by in

• from (starting, as of)

  from today
  from July

• past (time of the day)

• 23 minutes past 6 (6:23) ( also: after)

• since (from a point of time in the past, still continuing now)

  since Monday

• till/until (up to a point in time in the future)

  till tomorrow
  until tomorrow

• to (time of the day)

  23 minutes to 6 (5:37) ( also: before)

• within (in less time than)

  within a day

5. No preposition

• next Monday
• last Tuesday
• Saturday week

Exercise 1:  Preposition of time (time expressions)

Exercise 2: Time expressions