SYNTAX: INTERROGATION

1. Questions are traditionally divided into open and closed questions. The first ones refer to questions accepting any answer:

>  A: Where do you live?

    B: In Brighton

Instead, the second ones elicit a YES-NO answer.

>  A: Do you live in Brighton?

    B: Yes (I do)

The way in which both kinds of questions are made up is quite different in all languages.

2. As for closed questions, Catalan may transform a statement into a question by just changing the intonation of the sentence:

________ /                æ ets estudiant	you are a student
_______ä / ets estudiant?	are you a student?

3. Anyway it is quite frequent that Catalan introduces that kind of questions by means of the particle que, similar to French (est-ce que) or Portuguese (é que); observe that this is an unstressed particle, different from the interrogative què:

que vols estudiar alemany?	do you want to study German?
que necessites una miqueta de sal?	do you need a bit of salt?

Compare:

què vols fer?	what do you want to do?
que vols fer una torta?	do you want to make a cake?

4. In order to build up an open question it is absolutely necessary to use an interrogative. Otherwise it is impossible:

què heu comprat?	what have you bought?
qui és aquell noi?	who’s that boy?
amb qui vindràs avui?	who will you come with today?
de què parleu vosaltres?	what are you speaking about?
quin llibre em recomanes?	what book do you recommend me?
com es diu la teva amiga?	what’s your friend’s name?
d’on veniu vosaltres?	where do you come from?
per què no voleu venir?	why don’t you want to come?
quan arriba la pizza?	when will the pizza arrive?