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