Subject Object Questions in English

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1. Subject questions

When we want to know the person or thing who performed the verb we need to ask about the subject.

This type of question is called a subject question, and subject questions do NOT use the auxiliary verbs do, does, and did.

Question word	Verb	Rest	Subject	Verb	Rest
Who	lives	in that house?	Susan	lives	in that house.
What	happened	to you?	I	had	an accident.

Most questions in English are object questions – we want to know about the receiver of the action.

For questions in the simple present, the auxiliary verbs are do and does:

Question word	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb	Rest	Answer
Who	do	you	love?		I love my wife.
Who	did	John	phone	last night?	John phoned his wife.
What	does	he	do?		He works in a bank.

Mind the difference in meaning in the following two questions:

Subject question	Object question
Who phoned Susan?	Who did Susan phone?