Questions in German
Today’s lesson will be about Questions in German because it is very important part in learning language.
There are two main types of questions. The first starts with a question word (interrogative) and tends to be more ‘open’. The second starts with a finite verb and requires ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as an answer.
Both types are frequently used in English and German:
| Interrogative | |
| Where do you come from? | Woher kommen Sie? |
| Where do you live? | Wo wohnen Sie? |
| Yes or no question | |
| Have you got brothers and sisters? | Haben Sie Geschwister? |
| Is this your mobile? | Ist das Ihr Handy? |
Interrogative or ‘w-questions’ in detail
Here is a list of important question words and their English equivalents:
| wer? | who? |
| was? | what? |
| wo? | where? |
| woher? | where . . . from? |
| wohin? | where . . . (to)? |
| wann? | when? |
| wie? | how? what? |
| wie lange? | how long? |
| wie viel? | how much? |
| wie viele? | how many? |
| wie oft? | how often? |
| warum? | why? |
Examples
Here are some examples which show how the question words work.
| Wer ist das? | Who is that? |
| Wo wohnst du? | Where do you live? |
| Woher kommen Sie? | Where do you come from? |
|
Wohin fährt Juliane nächstes Wochenende? |
Where is Juliane going next weekend? |
| Wie ist deine E-Mail-Adresse? | What is your e-mail address? |
| Wie viel kosten 100 Gramm Mozzarella? | How much is 100 grams of Mozzarella? |
| Wie oft gehst du aus? | How often do you go out? |
Useful points
As you can see, the usage of most question words in German is very similar to English. Note the following points.
Wie used for names and adresses
The German interrogative wie ‘how’ is also used when you ask for a name or address:
Wie ist dein Name? What is your name?
Wie ist Ihre Telefonnummer /Adresse? What is your phone number/address?
It is incorrect to use was in such questions.
Use of wo, wohin and woher
Note that wo corresponds to the English ‘where’. If motion to or from a place is indicated, German always uses wohin or woher:
Wo ist die Kirche? Where is the church?
Wohin gehst du heute Abend? Where are you going (to) this evening?
Woher kommst du gerade? Where have you just come from?
How to ask about professions and where you work
The most common way in German to ask what somebody does for a living is:
Was sind Sie von Beruf?
What do you do for a living?
lit.What are you by profession
To find out for which company somebody is working, the question in German is:
Wo arbeiten Sie?
For whom do you work?
lit.Where do you work?
Yes and no questions in detail
The second type of question can by answered by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. As you can see, it does not need a question word. Instead the finite verb moves into the first position:
| finite verb | subject | other elements |
| Kommt | Peter | aus Berlin? |
| Wohnen | Sie | im Hotel ‘Zur Sonne’? |
| Trinkst | du | gern? |
This structure differs from a statement, where the finite verb is the second idea:
| statement | question |
| Peter kommt aus Berlin. | Kommt Peter aus Berlin? |
| Sie wohnen im Hotel Zur Sonne. | Wohnen Sie im Hotel ‘Zur Sonne’? |
