10 Tips on Asking and Answering Questions

When answering a question some people are confused they don’t know whether their answer should be short or long or how long their answer should be. Some are unaware of when to address a question and other are unsure of its form. Here are some tips on knowing how questions and their answers relate to a conversation.

1. Know what is being asked first. If you are unclear ask the speaker to repeat what he’s asked. If this is a busy doctor don’t be surprised if you don’t get a reply, other people have their own issues and some cannot cope with people who have difficulties assimilating oral information, as you would expect.
2. Answer what is being asked. This means don’t answer more than is required. If the person is asking your name, tell him what it is but don’t add your address too.
3. Questions are often matched to answers and the rule of thumb is if the question uses have, the answer also uses it
4. Short answers are good if one wants to be brief. In other words it isn’t necessary to repeat everything that was in the question to get an answer.
5. One-word answers are a no-no. Image if you wanted to continue a conversation with someone who would only answer with a yes or no. Your conversation won’t get very far. In a conversation when a person is upset he may answer with a singular word like “no” or be very curt when accepting something disagreeable with a word like “alright” (which does not mean that this word has a negative sense).
6. Remember the tense of the question. So if the question is asked in the present you should answer in the same tense and not in the past or future.
7. Listen for nuances in the question. Sometimes the speaker may use an intonation that is going to express irritation or annoyance for example and you want to be able to detect that so you could address the issue properly.
8. Make sure that you ask questions too, especially when in a balanced conversation. It shows interest on your part. There are one-sided conversations where one speaker is always prompting the other with questions and that is fine as far as interviews are concerned.
9. Look for cues when asking questions. Is the person interested in what you have to say or is he bored? If he is bored that is a good moment to find out why with an appropriate question like “Why are you bored?”
10. One question that can be answered with a choice of auxiliaries would be one with “do” and “have.” Do is the auxiliary of the verb have as with other irregular verbs and have is an auxiliary itself which explains why there is a special case for using one auxiliary or the other in the answer. So in a question like “Do you have the time?” it would be fair to answer, “Yes, I do” or “Yes, I have.”