Question

We divide questions into:

• W–Questions (Open Questions) - „Woher kommst du?“ – „Ich komme aus Deutschland.“

• Yes/No Questions (Closed Questions) - „Kommst du aus Deutschland?“ – „Ja/Nein.“

 

Ways to ask questions in German:

 

1. Intonation

You can form a question just by changing the tone of your voice to give a regular sentence the sound of question.

Du denkst and die Reise. – You are thinking about the trip.

Du denkst and die Reise? – Are you thinking about the trip?

 

2. The tag “nicht wahr”

Another way of forming questions in German is by adding the tag nicht wahr to your statement – which equals English “do you?”, “doesn’t it”, “are you”, etc.

Du bist nicht müde, nicht wahr? – You are not tired, are you?

 

3. Inversion

You can form questions by reversing the subject noun/pronoun and conjugated verb.

Du gehst nach Hause. – You are going home.

Gehst du nach Hause? – Are you going home?

 

German question words

Wer? (Who?)

Was? (What?)

Wann? (When?)

Wo? (Where?)

Warum? (Why?)

Wie? (How?)

Wie viel? (How much?)

Wie viele? (How many?)

Welcher? (Which?)

 

W–Questions are questions with question words.

Wer - This is one of the two W-words (Fragewörter) that are declinable.

Was - Is almost identical with wer' s declination