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How do we know when a sentence is a question? The punctuation (i.e. the question mark) is a giveaway for sure, but the structure of a sentence and the specific use of verbs also play an important part in forming questions.
This use of verb forms to show the purpose of a sentence is what we call 'Grammatical Mood'. The type of grammatical mood when we ask questions is called the 'Interrogative Mood'. Let's look at this in more detail, along with plenty of examples!
In English Language, the term 'grammatical mood' does not refer to whether we're having a good or bad day (like 'mood' does). Instead, it helps us to understand the purpose of a sentence and how it should be understood. For example, whether the sentences is a question, demand, statement, wish, etc.
So how exactly would we define grammatical mood?
Grammatical mood refers to the use of verb forms that indicate (show) the purpose of a sentence and how it should be understood.
There are five main types of grammatical mood in English Language. These are:
Different languages use different grammatical moods, and they express these moods in different ways.
What exactly is the interrogative mood?
The interrogative mood is the use of verb forms to indicate the sentence is a question.
Questions are in the interrogative mood (Pexels)
Let's look at a few examples of the interrogative mood in a sentence:
Are you going to see Jake's new puppy later?
Is anyone sitting here?
What is your favourite film?
What's the capital of Australia?
Do you like the new décor?
Does it look okay?
The interrogative mood has a recognisable form that shows the sentence is a question. To form a question, we don't change the main verb of the sentence like we do in some other moods. Instead, we use an auxiliary verb along with the main verb and place it before the subject of the sentence.
An auxiliary verb is a helps that 'helps' another verb to show information about grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, mood, and voice. Examples of auxiliary verbs include be, can, do, have, may, must, will, and would, but there are many more.
The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that does the action (i.e. the verb). In the sentence 'Emma plays football well', the subject is 'Emma' and the verb is 'plays'.
For example, if we take the sentence 'Molly likes swimming', we can form the interrogative by using the auxiliary verb 'does' and placing it before the subject (Molly). This forms the interrogative sentence 'Does Molly like swimming?'.
If there is already an auxiliary verb in the sentence, e.g. 'Chris is really tall', we can form the interrogative by inverting the auxiliary verb (is) and placing it before the subject (Chris). This forms the interrogative sentence 'is Chris really tall?'.
Let's look at a few other examples of the interrogative form.
Does my hair look good?
Here the auxiliary verb 'does' comes before the subject 'my hair'.
Are you coming to the festival later?
Here the auxiliary verb 'are' comes before the subject 'you'.
Was he being serious?
Here the auxiliary verb 'was' comes before the subject 'he'.
Placing the auxiliary before the subject is a defining feature of the interrogative. This distinctive form helps us to recognise the interrogative mood in text. The use of punctuation, more specifically question marks, is another recognisable feature.
The use of question marks (?) is the easiest way to recognise the interrogative mood. Question marks are usually put at the end of interrogative sentences (i.e. questions). For example, What time is it?.
It is important to remember that not all sentences that end in a question mark are in the interrogative mood. The sentence 'You're coming later, right?' is an example of a question mark in the indicative mood. The person is stating a belief 'you're coming later' but is also showing uncertainty by using a tag question and question mark.
Exclamative sentences, or 'exclamatory sentences', are different from interrogative sentences. We often recognise them as they end in an exclamation mark (!).
An exclamative is a word or sentence that indicates an exclamation (i.e. a remark of surprise, pain, anger, excitement, happiness, or admiration)
Examples of exclamative sentences include:
You won!
Come here quick!
Help me!
This place is beautiful!
You scared me!
There are five types of grammatical mood in English Language; one of these is called the conditional mood.
The conditional mood is the use of verb forms to express that one action is dependent on another (i.e. a condition for which something could happen).
We often form the conditional mood by using modal verbs. These are a type of auxiliary verb that express possibility, ability, intentions, probability, or permission. For example, can, could, will, would, should, might, and must. We often use a phrase using the word 'if' in the conditional mood also.
Some examples of sentences in the conditional mood are:
If I were rich, I would buy fifty dogs and a mansion.
If we go on holiday in summer, it should be to Greece.
You will get ill if you stay outside all night.
The interrogative mood is the use of verb forms to indicate the sentence is a question.
Examples of the interrogative mood are:
To form the interrogative mood, we use an auxiliary verb (i.e. 'helping' verb) along with the main verb and place it before the subject (the person/thing performing the action) of the sentence.
Placing the auxiliary before the subject is a defining feature of the interrogative. The use of punctuation, more specifically question marks, is another recognisable feature.
There are five main types of grammatical mood in English Language. These are indicative, imperative, subjunctive, interrogative, and conditional.
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