What it tests
Question formation: auxiliaries, word order, question tags, subject questions and indirect questions.
In the exam: part VIII, 5 tasks. A task scores only when all your choices are right.
Step by step
- Find the auxiliary: do/does/did, have/has, be, modal. It must agree with the subject and tense.
- Check the order: question word + auxiliary + subject + main verb.
- Subject questions have no do: Who called you?
- Indirect questions (Can you tell me…, I wonder…) use statement order: where she lives.
- Question tags: opposite polarity, same auxiliary, pronoun subject: She can swim, can't she?
Watch out for
- Two auxiliaries or none: Where will be going the Browns? ✕
- What do you think when will he come? ✕ → When do you think he will come?
- Tags after I am → aren't I?; after Let's → shall we?
Example
Since when Jane hasn't gone in for swimming?
Wrong — the auxiliary must come before the subject: Since when hasn't Jane gone in for swimming?