As this website has become more popular, I’ve received an increasing number of questions and requests for assistance. It’s always good to hear from readers, as I know there is always more to explain, or different ways to explain things, and also because it exposes areas where I need to learn more, myself! However, people mostly frame their questions in two very different ways, either incredibly polite and reverential or without any kind of introduction or request. In British English we tend to be rather indirect and perhaps overly polite with such interaction, so it strikes me that it may be useful to run through a few tips for how we politely introduce questions and requests.

Opening a Conversation

Even online, it’s always best to somehow address the recipient, rather than asking a question without introduction. This can be a simple:

Hi [Name]
Hello [Name]
Dear [Name] (more formal, which you may still find in emails but I would not expect on blog comments, for example)

On a website like this, using my first name is fine, without honorifics, as it’s all rather informal – for more formal settings, and to show respect, you may use titles and surnames.

To include no name at all suggests you do not know the recipient – although at least saying ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ is better than nothing!

Introducing a Question

Depending on the context, you may wish to give some background information about why you are asking for something, or what brought you to this particular recipient. Something as simple as:

I read your article about …
I am having trouble with …
I am preparing a paper for …
I am confused about …

This makes the contact more personal and could help provide useful background detail for your question or request.

Asking a Question

As I said above, in British English, we tend to be rather indirect, which means often we would add a preamble before a question. Beyond the greeting and introduction above, it can also be useful to show that you are requesting help, rather than presenting a question directly. What does this look like?

May I ask a question?
May I ask …
Could you help me with …
Could / Can you tell me … (Could leans more towards the polite, here, as can more accurately refers to ability)
Can I ask …

Framing a question with these and similar phrases shows respect, while simply asking directly could be seen as rather entitled.

We can go further than this in English, and indirectly frame the request in statement form:

I would like to ask …
I hope you can help me with …
I wonder if you can help me with …

With some or all of the details above in place, we can go ahead and ask our question.

Thanks

Lastly (not including any personal details and farewells), do remember to include some kind of thanks. Again, online this can be very informal, or you can use more elaborate thanks, but some recognition of the help is always welcome.

Thanks!
Thank you.
Thank you for your time.
Many thanks.
Many thanks for any help you can offer.

All of this put together does not need to be long or complicated, it’s merely a nicer way of framing a question than simply saying it. Here’s are a couple of complete models for responding to online content:

Hi [Jane], I saw your article about [octopuses] and would like to ask [if you know which octopus is biggest]? Thanks!
Hello [Eric], I found your video [about fixing kitchen sinks], because I [have a problem with my sink]. May I ask, [what is the best tap to buy]? Thank you.

I hope this helps – and if you have any questions of course do ask!

2 Comments

Shizuka on October 24, 2020 at 15:25

Hi Phil,

Concerning the subject of “questions” in English, I understand that there are two main types, namely Subject questions and object questions.

As the terms imply, object questions are mainly concerned with finding out information about the object of a sentence, while subject questions are concerned with the subject of the sentence.

Simply examples are as follows:

Sentence: James dropped the glass.

Object question: What did James drop?

Subject question: Who dropped the glass?

However, I’ve also come across the following part of a grammatical text which says that the following are examples of Object questions:

Where do you live?
Did you go shopping yesterday?
When are they going to arrive next week?

Here is my question – shouldn’t the answers to object questions be the objects themselves such as “glass” being the answer to the object question “What did James drop?”? If so, the answers to “Where do you live?” or “Did you go shopping yesterday?” could be “I live in Japan” and “Yes, I did go shopping yesterday”. Now if that’s the case, “in Japan” isnt a direct object since “live” as In “I live in Japan” is an intransitive verb, and neither is “shopping” the direct object of “I did go shopping yesterday”. If so, how can these be called Object Questions?

Would greatly appreciate your advice, thanks!

Regards,
Shizuka

Phil Williams on October 26, 2020 at 16:37

Hi Shizuka,

That’s a very good question – I think you’re absolutely right to look at it that way, referring to them as Object Questions is limiting. It serves a particular purpose, to differentiate between a question that asks about the subject and one that asks about the object, but I don’t believe the two types accurately cover all kinds of questions. I’d typically break questions down more relating to how they are structured, if they are simple yes/no questions or use a question word, or are a tag question, for example, before looking at whether they relate to the subject or other information. Then to differentiate between a subject question or not I would ask if the question word represents the subject or not (i.e. is the subject present in the question):
-Did James open the door? (James did the verb)
-What did James open? (James did the verb)
-Who opened the door? (unknown subject)
The third is clearly a subject question, the second is an object question, but even though the first is clearly not a subject question, it is not asking for an object either – it’s a yes/no question, I would leave it at that. Likewise your questions such as ‘when’ or ‘where’ are unlikely to ask about an object as such, but may also clearly not be subject questions. Essentially, it’s the difference between if we have the subject present in the question or not, and I think you’re finding these other examples are defining ‘object’ questions as any where the subject is known, so we are asking for more information, not for the subject. It’s useful when creating questions to know if it’s a Subject question or not, but trying to differentiate between Object questions and ones asking for other information is probably less useful, I think.
Reply

Shizuka on October 24, 2020 at 15:25

Hi Phil,

Concerning the subject of “questions” in English, I understand that there are two main types, namely Subject questions and object questions.

As the terms imply, object questions are mainly concerned with finding out information about the object of a sentence, while subject questions are concerned with the subject of the sentence.

Simply examples are as follows:

Sentence: James dropped the glass.

Object question: What did James drop?

Subject question: Who dropped the glass?

However, I’ve also come across the following part of a grammatical text which says that the following are examples of Object questions:

Where do you live?
Did you go shopping yesterday?
When are they going to arrive next week?

Here is my question – shouldn’t the answers to object questions be the objects themselves such as “glass” being the answer to the object question “What did James drop?”? If so, the answers to “Where do you live?” or “Did you go shopping yesterday?” could be “I live in Japan” and “Yes, I did go shopping yesterday”. Now if that’s the case, “in Japan” isnt a direct object since “live” as In “I live in Japan” is an intransitive verb, and neither is “shopping” the direct object of “I did go shopping yesterday”. If so, how can these be called Object Questions?

Would greatly appreciate your advice, thanks!

Regards,
Shizuka
- Phil Williams on October 26, 2020 at 16:37
  
  Hi Shizuka,
  
  That’s a very good question – I think you’re absolutely right to look at it that way, referring to them as Object Questions is limiting. It serves a particular purpose, to differentiate between a question that asks about the subject and one that asks about the object, but I don’t believe the two types accurately cover all kinds of questions. I’d typically break questions down more relating to how they are structured, if they are simple yes/no questions or use a question word, or are a tag question, for example, before looking at whether they relate to the subject or other information. Then to differentiate between a subject question or not I would ask if the question word represents the subject or not (i.e. is the subject present in the question):
  -Did James open the door? (James did the verb)
  -What did James open? (James did the verb)
  -Who opened the door? (unknown subject)
  The third is clearly a subject question, the second is an object question, but even though the first is clearly not a subject question, it is not asking for an object either – it’s a yes/no question, I would leave it at that. Likewise your questions such as ‘when’ or ‘where’ are unlikely to ask about an object as such, but may also clearly not be subject questions. Essentially, it’s the difference between if we have the subject present in the question or not, and I think you’re finding these other examples are defining ‘object’ questions as any where the subject is known, so we are asking for more information, not for the subject. It’s useful when creating questions to know if it’s a Subject question or not, but trying to differentiate between Object questions and ones asking for other information is probably less useful, I think.