Interrogative sentence

Question

Could someone walk me through analyzing this sentence: "What does her daughter do?"Might be very basic, but it has me stumped

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,
Could someone walk me through analyzing this sentence: "What does her daughter do?"

Might be very basic, but it has me stumped

Consider these examples.

1.
Q - What does her daughter cook?
A - She cooks pasta.

2
Q- What does her daughter do?
A - She does laundry.

3.
Q - What does her daughter do?
A - She works for Microsoft.

I hope you can now understand, but please post again if you still need help with this.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

For the purposes of instruction, the affirmative of this might be said to be something like:   "Her daughter does do something."   When an affirmative sentence is made into a question the words are typically scrambled and changed slightly:  "What (something) does her daughter do?"

Charlotten22 · Answer

Example number 3 in Clive's answer is the most appropriate way to interpret this question. When we ask what someone does, we are generally talking about their job or occupation, such as Q: "What does your daughter do?" A: "She is a student" or "She works at a hospital." The questions "What is your daughter doing?" would get the answer to what her action is at the moment, such as "She is doing laundry" (if we say "she does laundry" that means she probably works at a laundromat..it is her job to wash clothes) or "She is cooking." We can also use a present simple interrogative like this one to ask what someone does on a regular basis, such as "What does your daughter do on Fridays?" A: "She goes out on Friday nights" (she generally goes out every Friday).

If you are referencing the format of the question, remember that for questions in the present simple (with all verbs EXCEPT the verb "be") the order of words in a question always follows QUASI (Question word + auxiliary + subject + infinitive). I hope this helps!

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousWhat does her daughter do?

It's the interrogative form of "Her daughter does something".

her daughter ~ Subject
does ~ Verb
something ~ Direct Object

Here's how. We'll take another sentence first. Watch the steps for making a statement into a question.

(Her daughter takes the money.)

Her daughter takes something.
her daughter takes What? ..............Insert the question word.
What her daughter takes? ..............Put the question word first.
What her daughter does take?........Change the verb phrase adding auxiliary 'does'
What does her daughter take?........Invert subject and auxiliary verb.
__________________

Same steps.

Her daughter does something.
her daughter does What? ..............Insert the question word.
What her daughter does?..............Put the question word first.
What her daughter does do?........Change the verb phrase adding auxiliary 'does'
What does her daughter do?........Invert subject and auxiliary verb.
__________________

You may be confused by the fact that a form of "do" occurs twice - once as the main verb (like 'take' in the first example) - and once as an auxiliary verb (the same in both examples).

CJ

Interrogative sentence

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions