Guten Tag! 3.2 How old are you? -2

Different types of questions

In the previous chapter we looked at word order in questions wher there are specific question words. If you remember, the question word comes first, followed by the verb and then the subject of the sentence:

 

"Wie geht es Ihnen?" ("How are you?")

"Woher kommst du?" ("wher do you come from?")

"Wo wohnen Sie?" ("wher do you live?")

We have seen from the previous conversation however that if there is no specific question word in the clause, you should put the verb first, followed by the subject of the sentence:

 

"Sind Sie verheiratet?" ("Are you married?")

"Haben Sie Kinder?" ("Do you have children?")

"Darf ich mich verabschieden?" ("May I say goodbye?")

 

Present tense of the verb "haben"

The German verb "haben" (= "to have") is another common German verb which is irregular. The "-b-" of the stem disappears in both the "du" and the "er/sie" forms of the present tense: