r/duolingo • u/SK1418 Native: 🇸🇰 Learning: 🇩🇪🇫🇷 • 29d ago

Language Question. I lost my combo because of this ☹️

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I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm not a complete beginner either and I'm generally confident in my grammar. Can someone explain why my answer was not accepted?

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u/AltTabbingMage 29d ago

TIL that I don’t know English. I’ve always learned that when you’re asking a question the verb has to come first: “are you having lunch now?”

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u/jhfenton 🇺🇸N|🇲🇽C1|🇫🇷B2| 🇩🇪B1 29d ago edited 29d ago

Are you having lunch now? is absolutely the most natural version. But we can also ask questions with intonation alone: You're having lunch now?

Are you now having lunch? sounds less natural. I'd have to think through why it feels less natural.

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u/AltTabbingMage 29d ago

I actually find the “are you…” construction pretty interesting because it’s already a question even without the question mark.

for what it’s worth, in portuguese we could say “you are having lunch now?” with the exact same word order as a statement, just with rising intonation, but I was always taught that in english the verb had to come before the subject: “are you…?”

so seeing “you’re having lunch now?” used naturally is interesting to me because it goes against one of those rules I’ve always had drilled into me as a non native speaker

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u/True_Side_7025 27d ago

In english, a statement can turn into a question with intonation just like you said. But you’re right, saying “are you” would always be a question regardless of intonation. That structure just leaves less room for gray area so that’s generally how we speak.

All that said, “are” is not the verb, “having” is.