Other Definitions
interrogative mood (dict)
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Interrogative MoodIn linguistics and grammar, the interrogative mood is a grammatical mood used for asking questions. For most languages, there is no special question-asking mood. Many languages do one of the following to ask a question: - add a particle to the beginning or end of a sentence. Examples: French adds a lengthy particle
- invert the word order in some way. Examples: English changes the order of the subject and the first auxiliary verb; French inverts the subject and verb
- offer the listener a yes/no choice. Example: Mandarin
- use a different intonation. Example: English usually ends questions with a rising tone
- use a special mood of the verb. Example: Nenets has a special mood.
The interrogative mood can also be used in addition to the ways above. For example, a language could always use the interrogave mood to ask a question, but it could also offer the listener a choice if a certain answer is desired.
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