Difference between QUESTION ASK and INQUIRE Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about the

difference between question ask and

inquire these are three verbs that seem

very similar but have a few different

uses so I’ll talk about some definitions

and then I’ll share some examples to

give you an idea of how you can use

these verbs okay let’s get started I

want to begin with the verb question two

questions so please be careful today I’m

not talking about the noun form question

I’m talking about the verb form to

question something so two question as a

verb has a couple of different meanings

first it means to ask for information to

ask someone for information this often

has the nuance of interrogating someone

so to interrogate someone this is a verb

we used for example in like police

situations or like suspect or crime

related situations where police or

authority figures ask a lot of questions

to a person who is suspected of a crime

that’s interrogation as a noun or in the

verb form to interrogate so maybe a

slightly less serious form of

interrogate is question so it means

you’re asking for information usually

about a serious matter so let’s look at

an example here

the reporter questioned the CEO about

the year’s changes so in this case it’s

a business situation a reporter is

talking to a CEO about changes in the

company perhaps for the year and the

verb question in past tense questioned

is used to mean the reporter is asking

for information in a serious manner so

this probably also means that the

reporter is asking many different

questions not just one question but

asking a series of questions about the

same topic okay let’s take a look at the

second meaning for

lesson of the verb question the second

meaning here is to doubt to doubt so

like if you’re suspicious of something

something doesn’t seem true for example

it doesn’t seem genuine we can use the

verb question to describe that let’s

look at an example I can’t believe

you’re questioning my loyalty so here

question in the progressive form

questioning refers to doubting someone’s

loyalty so this could be is like a

member of a team a member of a group a

member of a company whatever in other

words the person listening is

questioning or is doubting the speaker’s

loyalty meaning they’re not sure if it’s

true or not so two question can mean to

doubt as well all right one more example

sentence here just to kind of refresh

I think the first meaning is applicable

for this sentence the suspect was

questioned this morning the suspect was

questioned this morning so here it’s

used in passive and we see that it’s

again in some kind of criminal or crime

related situation so this is something

you’ll commonly see in news like in

reports related to crime so to question

okay now though let’s move on to ask and

inquire so let’s start with an ask the

verb to ask means to request one to

request something it also means to look

for information so you’ll see actually

this is the same as I have for inquire

but one key difference here is that ask

is the most commonly used verb it’s more

casual than inquire so I’ll show you

some examples of how to use this first

one she asked him for help with her

report

so here asked has the meaning of request

in other words she requested him for

help with her report here we have past

tense asked asked she asked him for help

the second example sentence they

asked where the restroom was again we

have past-tense here in this case

they’re looking for information you

could understand it as requesting

information but here they are looking

for some information this is a fairly

simple a fairly casual situation so ask

is a good choice here we don’t need to

use enquire as that sounds a little too

formal

so ask is used in these kind of everyday

simple situations to request help for

example or to get some information ok so

now let’s take a look at inquire as I

said inquire I have the same definitions

listed for inquire as I have for ask

however inquire sounds more formal than

ask so we can use it in similar

situations in terms of the meaning but

when you use inquire it should be for

something that’s a little more serious

or not so maybe everyday so maybe in

like business situations or in customer

client relations for example let’s take

a look at some examples of when inquire

might be used first one reporter’s

inquired about the president’s

motivations so reporters inquired about

so in this case it’s reporters they’re

searching for information about the

president’s motivations so this is

connected to this meaning looking for

information the reporters are trying to

find some information here let’s look at

the next example sentence

people shouldn’t inquire about the

private lives of celebrities so here

inquire is used in present tense so in

other words people shouldn’t look for

information or maybe even people

shouldn’t request information about the

private lives of celebrities so these

are perhaps more formal situations you

these might be something you could see

in the news for example or in more

serious situations or in serious

discussions so when you’re choosing

between ask and inquire ask yourself is

this a casual situation if so ask is

probably the best choice if it’s more

formal like a business situation you

might use inquire instead and when you

want to talk about like interrogations

and like asking lots and lots of

questions you might use the verb

question here instead so I hope that

that helps you I hope you can kind of

get an idea of some of the differences

between these three verbs of course if

you have any questions or comments or

want to try to make some sentences with

these three verbs please feel free in

the comment section of this video of

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thanks very much for watching this

lesson and I will see you next time bye

bye

you