Unit 1: Nice to meet you!

Asking questions
In English, there are two basic types of question.

1. Yes/no questions often begin with the verb to be, but can also begin with
other auxiliary verbs, such as do. We ask these when we want a yes or no answer.
Dave: Are you hungry?
Mike: Yes, Im starving.
Sarah: Did you get here on time?
Emily: No, I missed the bus!

2. Wh-questions start with a question word, such as who, what, where, when, why or
how. We ask this type of question when we want different kinds of information. These
questions cannot be answered with a yes or no.
Dave: Why are you so hungry?
Mike: I didnt eat breakfast.
Sarah: When did you get here?
Emily: About half an hour ago.
Form

Yes/no questions that begin with the verb to be are made with to be + subject.
Are you playing football tomorrow?
Was the weather nice yesterday?
If we start with an auxiliary verb, the order is auxiliary + subject + main verb.
Can Jenny speak Chinese?
Did you go to the cinema on Saturday?

Wh-questions can be used to ask about the subject or object of the verb. Compare
these questions:
Who loves Lucy?
Who does Lucy love?

For subject questions, the order is question word + verb + object.

Who wants ice cream for dessert?
Who broke the mirror in the dining room?
Who answered the phone?

The object question form is question word + auxiliary + subject + verb.

What did you do at the weekend?
Where does your brother work?
Who will you ask for help?
Take Note

Asking questions with how

The question word how is usually combined with other words when asking for information,
such as size, someones age, or the price of something.
How big is your apartment?
How old are your children now?
How much is the black dress in the window?
Spoken English
In formal situations, it is common to respond to a yes/no question by repeating the
auxiliary in a complete sentence.
Max: Can you use a computer?
Jill: Yes, I can.

In casual spoken English, we do not need to repeat the auxiliary. Answers do not always
contain 'yes' or 'no'.
Peter: Do you know the way to the train station?
William: Not really.
Lucy: Shall we order sushi?
Sally: Absolutely!
Ways to say 'hello'

Hi there.

Afternoon!

Hiya!

Alright?

How's it going?

Hey!

Nice to meet you.

6 Minute Vocabulary. Suffixes

Alice
Were going to listen to Andrea and Steve who work in a bank. They have just interviewed
two people who want to work there.
Finn
And heres a question to think about while you listen: who did Andrea and Steve like best the first person or the second person?

Andrea
What do you think then Steve?
Steve
Well, the first one was very excitable: he kept laughing and speaking fast.
Andrea
Perhaps it was just nervousness, but theres no room for that in this business.
Steve
No. Now I thought the second interviewee seemed a bit more responsible.
Andrea
Yes, she did very important when dealing with money. And she was polite.
Steve
Politeness is essential in this job.
Andrea
Absolutely. Well, I think we both know which one is more employable.

Alice
And the answer is: they definitely liked the second person best. The second one was polite
and responsible. The first one was a bit too excitable.
Finn
And excitable is a key word in the show today because it ends in a suffix.
Alice
A suffix is a group of letters that you can add to the end of a word to change its form, or
meaning, or both.
Finn
For example, the word excitable has the suffix -able, spelt a-b-l-e. -able makes verbs into
adjectives, and we use able words to say that a subject can do something is able to do
something - or they behave in a particular way.

Alice
so if we take the verb excite, add the suffix -able, we can say that the first interviewee
was excitable, meaning: he can get very excited.
Finn
and the second one was responsible, thats responsible with ible, spelt i-b-l-e. She can
be trusted (confiada) to do the right thing. And thats why she was more employable, now
that's -able with an a again.
Andrea and Steve talked about two interviewees. The suffix ee, spelt e-e, makes a noun
which means the person who receives an action.
Alice
For example, if you add ee to interview, you get the person who receives an interview,
an interviewee.
Finn
Our final suffix for today is ness, spelt n-e-s-s. Adding ness to an adjective makes a
noun.
Alice
and interviewee number one suffered from nervousness the noun form of nervous.
Finn
But number two understood the importance of politeness the noun form of polite.
Finn
Now lets listen to todays suffixes and words again.
Alice
The first one was: -able with an a. a-b-l-e.
Finn
excitable, employable
Alice
-ible withan i. i-b-l-e.
Finn
responsible
Alice
-ee: e-e
Finn
interviewee
Alice
-ness: n-e-s-s
Finn
nervousness, politeness

Alice
And its time for a quiz. Choose the correct suffix to complete the final words in these 2
sentences. Ready?
Number 1.The most important thing to me is my familys a) happy-ee b) happy-able, c)
happiness.
Finn
This one is the noun form of happy, so its c) happiness.
Alice
Number 2. Im learning how to do this job. Im a a) trainee b) trainable, c) train-ness.
Finn
You are receiving training, so youre a trainee.
Alice
Heres todays top tip for learning vocabulary: if you use an online dictionary, type a
hyphen or a dash into the search box, and then type in any of todays suffixes. The
dictionary will give you a list of words that end with your suffix.

Vocabulary points to take away

-ee creates a noun meaning 'person who receives an action'.
Example words: interviewee, trainee, employee, refugee, absentee
Example sentence: My company has six thousand employees.

-able creates an adjective meaning that the subject can do something OR that something
can be done to it.
Example words: excitable, employable, pleasurable, enjoyable, loveable, readable,
breakable, moveable
Example sentence: I didnt like his last book it wasnt very readable.

-ible is a different spelling of -able.

Example words: responsible, visible, horrible, terrible
Example sentence: Stars are only visible at night.

-ness creates a noun which describes a quality or state.

Example words: happiness, nervousness, politeness, sadness, sickness,
kindness, meaninglessness
Example sentence: He missed two days of work because of sickness.

6 Minute Grammar: Question forms

Yes/no and Wh-questions

Sophie
in English, there are two basic question types: yes/no questions and w-h questions.
Finn
Can you speak English? Can you speak English?
Sophie
Yes and its made with the auxiliary verb can, plus the subject you and a verb: speak.
Finn
Do you work every day? Do you work every day?
Sophie
Auxiliary do, subject you, verb work.
Finn
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Sophie
Auxiliary do, subject you, verb: have.
Neil
Now another way to make yes-no questions is with the verb to be plus a subject. Are you
married?
Sophie
Now, the second main type of question in English starts with either what, where,
when, which, why, who, how.
Sophie
So lets try making a question with where. We add an auxiliary
Sophie
then we can add a subject plus a verb. For example: Where do you live?.
Sophie
Which languages do you speak?
Neil
And here we add a noun to which.
Neil
We can add nouns to some of the other question words: What time do you start work?
Sophie
And if we ask 'What time is it?' were making a w-h question with the verb to be. I can ask:
Where were you born?

Neil
I was born in England. When is your birthday?
Sophie
In September. What is your work address?
Neil
its W1A. Now for a very personal question with to be: How old are you?
Sophie
You should never ask a woman her age! And for questions with how, we usually add an
extra word. To ask about age its:
Finn
How old
Sophie
For price its:
Finn
How much
Neil
For size we ask:
Finn
How big
Sophie
And for height its
Finn
How tall.
Sophie
How tall are you, Neil?
Neil
About 180cm. And of course, you cant answer a w-h question with yes or no.
Sophie
Yes, it is. Join in at home if you like. Im going to give you a topic to ask me about, and you
have to make one yes/no question and one w-h question. Heres the first topic: Ask me
about my age.
Neil
How old are you? When were you born?
Neil
Do you live with your family? What is your address?
Neil
Do you work near here? How much do you earn?

Neil
So thats a look at some basic question types we can use when were getting to know
people. We had yes/no questions,
Sophie
And we looked at questions starting with w-h words.
Neil
And we found out some interesting information about each other.