The Ultimate Guide To Answering Any Question In English (+Practice Exercise!)
Do you often get stuck when answering a question in English? Do you wish to sound more natural and fluent as well?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, keep on reading!
BONUS: I have included practice questions included at the end of this article.
Photo by Amelia Bartlett on Unsplash
I’ve introduced my students to an easy step-by-step guide on how they can answer any question in English, and give a good, solid, cohesive answer. This guide includes using the 6 main question words - the 5 W’s and H question words.
WHO
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE
WHY
HOW
These are the 6 main question words, and it is very likely that a question will begin with one of these words.
NOTE: These questions cannot be answered with “yes” or “no”.
However, this is excellent! In this way, you will be pushed (and hopefully motivated) to answer them with a phrase or sentence with more substance than a simple “yes” or “no”. It is important to note that, sometimes, questions start in a different way with different words, but today, we’re focusing on these 6 main words to help you form an answer to any question.
Let’s start with an example question:
What’s your favorite way to spend a weekend?
Here’s how I recommend that you approach a question like this.
First, you should identify what exactly the question asking.
In this case, it’s asking us “WHAT”. So, you should focus on what it is that you like to do, what’s your favourite thing(s) to do during the weekend.
Example responses could include:
Going hiking
Playing my guitar
Going to the beach
Learning English
Building a treehouse
In order to put one of these responses into a sentence to answer to the question, we can simply say:
I enjoy going to the beach.
In our response, we have answered TWO of our question words: WHAT, WHERE.
In spite of this, our answer is quite basic and maybe a little boring. As an English learner, you should strive to learn how to speak well and as naturally as possible. We can enhance our response by incorporating some more information. We do this by adding in the responses to some of the other question words (e.g. WHEN, WHY, WHO).
For example, we can say:
I enjoy going to the beach on weekends because I get to meet my friends.
This sentence is a bit more well-rounded and provides our speaking partner with more information, and the response also shares a bit about your personality with your partner.
We answered: WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, WHO — ALL the 5 W’s!
Let’s look at another example:
Who has had the biggest impact on your career choice?
Example responses:
My parents
My favorite teacher
A celebrity
Our well-rounded response can be:
My favorite teacher greatly influenced my career choice when she gave a speech about personal development in my final year of high school.
In our response, we have answered FIVE of our question words: WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHEN, WHERE*.
Here are some more questions that you can use to practice!
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Why do you think it is important to wash your hands often?
How can you improve your English at home?
When is the best time in one’s life to start learning a language, and why?
What can we do to prepare for a hurricane?
Who is your best friend? How did you meet?
Feel free to share your answers in the comment section!
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Thanks for reading!
Talk soon,
-Maryse.