A selection of English ESL word order in questions printables

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

Students will read about a crime that took place and act as the lead detective on the case so that they will need to ask the suspects questions and uncover the culprit. The goal is to build upon student's abilities to formulate more complex questions. Consider reviewing linking words/phrases to help maintain a natural flow between questions.

Solve the Crime (Making Questions)

This ESL worksheet is for young students in order to practice vocabulary about animals. The students have to number the pictures. You can use this even with children who can't read yet if you dictate the words. There are also a couple of discussion questions in this EFL printable. You can use it as a game or a competition too.
If you want to practice more, you can find more of my worksheets about the same topic here.

Animals - I'm going to buy a farm

Practice making questions. Write the questions in the correct tense for the interview with the famous Captain Hook. Students seem to have great difficulty making questions- usually leaving out the helping verb and often unable to get the word order straight. This is an attempt to make the learning the correct formation of questions slightly more interesting. Key Included. Editable. 



Clip art from MyCuteGraphics.com

Interview with Captain Hook + KEY

Students often have difficulty forming questions. They leave out the helping verb or put the words in mixed up order. This is a chart to illustrate the correct formation of questions. It can be used as a sample to follow so that students can then create their own questions. 



Another question formation chart (for subject questions)  found here: 



https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/questions_used_as_subjects/questions--subject/73843

Forming Questions Classroom Poster

This worksheet is based on a TED video about a different kind of school. It contains a vocabulary matching activity (to be done before watching in order to enhance the students´ comprehension of the video), and a set of comprehension questions. After watching, the students are asked to complete the answers with the missing words or phrases. B&W copy and Answer Key provided.

Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering

The worksheet teaches adjectives that describe personality. It can be used as part of the module on family relations because it focuses on the connection between personality and birth order or role in the family. Tasks include listening for details, comprehension questions, and speaking activities. Students write a poem about themselves using personality adjectives and family vocabulary words at the end of the lesson.

How Birth Order Can Shape Your Personality

Aimed at adult learners in a UK college environment.  You may want to change the wording for C2 (refers to 'your children') C3 (refers to 'college') and D5 (refers to UK).
A. Matching the special days and the dates
B.  Finish the sentences with days.
C. Word order for questions
D. Gap-fill for do/does/is/are
E Free writing to answer questions.

Christmas and New Year - Present Simple Questions practice

This story was a version on the origin of scarecrows in Borneo. Bele-Bele means scarecrow in the Bajau language and this term derived from the word “bele” which means hawk in Bajau language. The predatory bird always scared other birds and they would fly away whenever it showed up just how this magical being was. Hence, they named him after it and repeated it twice in order to emphasize the significance of the name. As a community that believed in the existence of spirits of almost every inanimate object, Bele Bele was believed to have a spirit too. This material contains several questions. The story was written by Sirhajwan Idek. It is also available in ESL Printables. 

Bele Bele: The Origin of Scarecrow 

The objective of this worksheet is that the students practise the questions What's this? What's that? What are these? What are those? They have to look at the pictures and match; they have to write the words in the correct order; they have to complete the sentences with the words from the box; and lastly they have to write the correct questions for the answers. The vocabulary is school objects.

This - That - These - Those

Song "Whataya Want From Me" - By far the most popular song at our school at the moment! Fully editable. Elementary and higher. A song to teach Phrasal verbs with ‘GIVE’. Grammar guide is in Part 1. Answer Key given in Part 3. 10 tasks of varying difficulty. Choose the activities you want and make up your own worksheet. Various activities including: listening for specific info; comprehension questions - crossword puzzle; vocabulary matching task; gap fill; an ordering task; discussion questions and idioms focused on the word ‘WANT’.

Phrasal Verbs - particularly with 'GIVE' : Part 2 (Song)

If you have students who enjoy reading about royals you can use this classic information gap.



In order to find the required information they have to use the correct question word and make questions in the past simple. Depending on their level they will need more or less pre-teaching / revising before they do the activity. If they are insecure they may also write their questions before they do the activity. 



On p 3 you will find the full text for your own Information.



Royals past simple information gap

This is a grammar guide/drill that goes briefly through the affirmative, negative and question forms that verbs can take in the Present Simple tense. 

It has a comfortable learning curve to it, beginning with the easier affirmative form, going through the other two and then progressing to a more challenging second exercise where students must order the words to form a correct sentence.

The worksheet isn't necessarily fun, but much needed practice, I believe.  

181 Word order in questions English ESL worksheets pdf & doc