What do you cook?

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What do you cook?

Interrogative Word 'What'

Intermediate

By the end of the lesson, you will be able to start asking open-ended questions.

Exercise 1

Sentence Practice

What + verb 'be'

	Zach What is that?
	John It's a bird... it's a plane... it's Superman!

	Zach What was that?
	John It was a bird... it was a plane... it was Superman!

What + helping verb 'do' + main verb

	Zach What do you cook?
	Chef I cook Chinese food.

	Zach What did you eat yesterday?
	Chef I ate Chinese food yesterday.

What phrases

	Zach What is the date?
	Hannah Today is August 22nd.

	Zach What song did he sing?
	Hannah He sang 'Happy Birthday'.

What as subject

	Zach What is in this box?
	Zookeeper A snake.

	Zach What happened last month?
	Zookeeper I got married.

Grammar Focus

Why do we use 'what'?

Remember, there are two types of questions: yes-no and open-ended. A yes-no question can have only yes or no as the answer: "Are you cooking? - Yes, I am". An open-ended question can have many answers: "What are you cooking? - An egg".

'What' is one of the interrogative words we use to form an open-ended question. Other interrogative words include: 'who', 'why', 'where', 'when', and 'how'.

How do we use 'what'?

To ask for the name or identity of something, use What + verb 'be'+ subject:

What is your name?
What is the time?
What was that?

To ask for the name of an action, use What + helping verb 'be'/'do' + subject + main verb:

What do you do? (= as your job)
What are you doing?
What did you do?

You can also use a modal verb instead of a helping verb:

What can we do?

You can use 'what' in what phrases by putting it before other words: what time, what place, what color, etc.

What time is it? - It's 5 o'clock.
What day of the week is it? - It's Friday.
What color was his shirt? - It was yellow.

What as a subject pronoun

When 'what' is the subject of a sentence, it works like any other subject pronoun (he, she, it, they).

It fell off the wall.
→ What fell off the wall? ('What' replaces subject pronoun 'it')

Exercise 2

Dialogue Practice

Read the dialogues aloud with your tutor.

Present tense

	Teacher What is his favorite movie?
	High School Student He likes “Harry Potter".

	Teacher What is the name of this animal?
	High School Student It is a red panda.

	Teacher What do you want for your birthday?
	High School Student I want a Seiko watch.

	Teacher What subject does she like?
	High School Student She likes History.

	Teacher What languages do you speak?
	High School Student I only speak English.

Past Tense

	Teacher What did you give her for her birthday?
	High School Student I gave her a hug because I didn’t have any money.

	Teacher What color was his car?
	High School Student It was red.

	Teacher What did you learn in my lesson?
	High School Student I learned a lot of things.

	Immigration Officer What was the purpose of your visit?
	Andrei Sightseeing.

	Teacher What was in this box?
	High School Student Some books.

Exercise 3

Fill in the Blanks

Fill in the blanks to complete the sentences.

You are at a store that sells tools. Ask the store clerk questions using 'what' and the following words.

What this?

What it do?

What we do with it?

What I use it for?

What uses it have?

Answer Pool (Questions 1-5)

is
do
does
does
do

Exercise 4

Sentence Building

A friend is visiting you. Ask them how they want to spend the day.

Example

do today → "What do you want to do today?"

eat for breakfast
eat for lunch
movies to watch
places to go
things to do
food to cook