Subject and object questions

1. Subject and object questions

2. Sometimes an ACTION requires two entities ( people , animals or things ) to take place. These actions are called TRANSITIVE ACTIONS. They have the following structure : Subject + VERB + Object “Mark watches films.” “ Gerry loves Susan .” “ The cat chases rats .”

3. In the previous examples we know both the subject and the object that take part in the action , but sometimes this is not the case. The interrogative form is different when we don’t know the o bject ( o bject questions ) than when we don’t know the subject ( subject questions ) .

4. “Mark watches …. we don’t know ” “ Gerry loves …. we don’t know ” “ A cat chases …. we don’t know ” When we know the person , animal or thing that does the action ( subject ), but we don’t know the person , animal or thing that recieves that action ( object ): OBJECT QUESTIONS

5. Object questions have a normal interrogative structure after the question word : [ Wh . word + aux + S + V] “ What does Mark watch ? Films.” “ Who does Gerry love ? Susan .” “ What does a cat chase ? Rats .”

6. In subject questions we know the person animal or thing that suffers or receives the action , but we don’t know the person , animal or thing that does that action . SUBJECT QUESTIONS “ Someone ….. watches films. ” “ Someone ….. loves Susan .” “ Something ….. chases rats .”

7. In subject questions the verb goes directly after the WH – word , in a sentence very similar to the affirmative , with the wh-word instead of the unknown subject . “ Who watches films? Mark.” “ Who loves Gerry ? Susan ” “ What chases rats ? A cat ”