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Conversations kept for history: negative questions and echo questions for interviews

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches negative questions and echo questions through StoryCorps, which records conversations between people who know each other and sends copies to the Library of Congress.

Grammar
Auxiliary + n't + subject for surprise or checking (Didn't you miss home?), answers that follow the facts (Yes, I did.) and echo questions in statement order: You walked how far?
Topic
How StoryCorps records two people and where the recordings go, with words such as oral history, facilitator, anecdote and transcript.
Activities
An explainer to read, a family interview and a reader's voice memo to hear, self-checking drills, an interview chat, a model article and a question wheel.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: stories at the kitchen table

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the words: stories worth keepingVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: a glowing box in a train station

    • Look at the picture: a booth for two voicesPictureUnlock
    • Read Isaiah's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: forty questions for Grandma

    • Listen to Isaiah and his grandmotherListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Quincy's voice memoListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: You walked how far?

    • Study the scheme: negative and echo questionsGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: make negative questionsFill in the gapsTry it
    • Fill in the table: make echo questionsFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what do they mean?QuizUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: from interview to article

    • Choose the right replies: interview your neighbor ElsieChatTry it
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Elsie's words in reported speechDrag and dropUnlock
    • Put the paragraphs of the model article in the correct orderDrag and dropUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answer: interview a classmateSpin the wheelUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: make negative questionsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Fill in the table: answer the negative questionsFill in the tableUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: which question is correct?QuizUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: build an interview articleChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Isaiah answers QuincyDrag and dropUnlock

35 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • oral history
  • facilitator
  • follow-up question
  • anecdote
  • upbringing
  • off the record
  • transcript
  • born digital
  • reminisce

Grammar: negative questions and echo questions

A good interviewer reacts as well as asks. A negative question shows surprise or checks what you think is true (Didn't you miss home?), and an echo question repeats the part that's hard to believe: You walked how far? In a grandson's interview with his grandmother, learners pick the auxiliary that matches the tense, answer by the facts and keep statement order in echo questions.

Didn't you miss home? You walked how far?

Negative questions show surprise or check what you think is true. Echo questions repeat what someone said and ask about the surprising part.

Auxiliary + n't + subject

Start with the auxiliary of the tense and add n't: Isn't it hard? Wasn't it cold? Doesn't she live here? Can't you stay? After don't, didn't or can't comes the base form, with no to: not Don't you missed or Didn't you to miss.

Negative questions: auxiliary + n't + subject

Personbe (now)be (past)do / doesdidhave / can
IAren't I late?Wasn't I right?Don't I know you from somewhere?Didn't I tell you?Haven't I met you before?
youAren't you tired?Weren't you scared?Don't you love it?Didn't you miss home?Can't you stay?
heIsn't he your uncle?Wasn't he there?Doesn't he live here?Didn't he call?Hasn't he finished?
sheIsn't she at work?Wasn't she nineteen?Doesn't she swim?Didn't she walk to school?Can't she come?
itIsn't it hard?Wasn't it cold?Doesn't it work?Didn't it rain?Hasn't it stopped?
weAren't we recording?Weren't we lucky?Don't we have time?Didn't we meet in May?Can't we start now?
theyAren't they coming?Weren't they kind?Don't they keep copies?Didn't they get a CD?Haven't they called?

Common mistakes

  • Don't you missed home?

    Didn't you miss home?

    the past: didn't + the base form

  • Didn't you to miss home?

    Didn't you miss home?

    no to after didn't, don't or can't

  • You walked how much far?

    You walked how far?

    how far for a distance, how much for an amount

  • Isn't it was hard?

    Wasn't it hard?

    one verb form: wasn't for the past of be

Surprise or checking?

Didn't you hear the alarm? shows surprise: you expected that the person heard it. Isn't the Folklife Center part of the Library of Congress? checks something you believe is true. In formal speech, not follows the subject: Did you not miss home?

Surprise or checking?

Surprise: Didn't you hear the alarm? (I'm surprised you didn't.) Checking something you think is true: Isn't the Folklife Center part of the Library of Congress? (I think it is. Am I right?) In formal speech, not comes after the subject: Did you not miss home? Is it not hard?

In the interview

  • “Didn't you miss home?” “Yes, I did, especially on Sundays.”
  • “Wasn't it hard to adapt to a big city?” “No, it wasn't.”
  • You walked how far? Every day?
  • You did what? Not new shoes?
  • Isn't that why we're recording?
  • Doesn't a microphone change how people talk?

Answer the facts, not the question

Answer a negative question as you'd answer the positive one: Didn't you go? – Yes, I did means you went, and No, I didn't means you stayed home. Never mix the two: Yes, I didn't and No, I did are wrong.

QuestionIt's trueIt isn't true
Didn't you go?Yes, I did. (I went.)No, I didn't. (I didn't go.)
Isn't it hard?Yes, it is. (It's hard.)No, it isn't. (It's easy.)
Wasn't she scared?Yes, she was.No, she wasn't.
Haven't they called?Yes, they have.No, they haven't.

Echo questions: You walked how far?

An echo question keeps the speaker's statement and puts a question word where the surprising part was, with a rising voice: You moved where? It cost how much? For a surprising action, say You did what?, not What you did?

Echo questions: the question word goes in the gap

Someone saysYou ask aboutEcho question
I walked two miles to school.the distanceYou walked how far?
I bought a radio with my first paycheck.the actionYou did what?
I moved to Atlanta at eighteen.the placeYou moved where?
The radio cost twelve dollars.the priceIt cost how much?
We had fourteen cousins at dinner.the numberYou had how many cousins?
I learned to swim at sixty.the ageYou learned to swim at what age?

Answers and word order

Answer about the facts: “Didn't you go?” “Yes, I did.” means you went; “No, I didn't.” means you didn't. Never mix them: not “Yes, I didn't” or “No, I did”. In an echo question, keep the order of the statement and say it with a rising voice: You walked how far? (not How far you walked?). To ask about the whole action, say You did what? (not What you did?).

More lessons on this grammar: Questions lessons and exercises

Try the negative questions exercises

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What's in the lesson

  • 21 auto-checked exercises
  • 5 games
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • ask negative questions to show surprise or check what you believe: Didn't you miss home? Isn't the Folklife Center part of the Library of Congress?
  • pick the auxiliary that matches the tense: Wasn't it hard?, not Isn't it was hard?; Didn't you miss, not Don't you missed
  • answer by the facts: Didn't you go? – Yes, I did. means you went
  • react with echo questions in statement order: You walked how far? You did what?
  • interview a classmate and report the answers in an article: She told me that she had driven a city bus for thirty-one years.

Lesson 31 is the third lesson of Generations, unit 8 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. Its negative questions grow out of the question tags of B1.1 lesson 28 (It looked strange, didn't it?), and its article task reuses the reported speech of B1.2 lessons 13 to 16. Lesson 32, A day for grandparents, ends the course with prepositional phrases. An interview with a grandmother is full of surprise and follow-up questions, where negative and echo questions belong.

Students open boxes of questions about family stories, then learn twelve words, from adapt and quote to off the record and born digital, with pictures and audio. They read Isaiah's explainer on StoryCorps, then hear him record his grandmother in Atlanta, and Quincy, 34, from Savannah, Georgia, argue that some family talks belong at home; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking exercises, among them a table of echo questions to build. The speaking chapter turns an interview into an article: a chat with a neighbor named Elsie, her words in reported speech, a model article to put in order and a wheel for interviewing a classmate.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game, then new questions to choose from, negative questions to type, short answers that match the facts and a quiz on correct questions, ending with an article about a classmate's first winter and Isaiah's answer to Quincy.

Grammar:
negative questions · echo questions · answering negative questions · questions for interviews · reported speech in an article
Topic:
StoryCorps · the Library of Congress · oral history · family interviews · grandparents' stories · generations · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

  • Open with a surprising true sentence about yourself, such as a long walk or a strange first job. Students react with an echo question (You walked how far?) and a negative one (Weren't you tired?).
  • Ask who in the family tells the best stories before the reading. Then students read to find who talks in a StoryCorps booth, who helps them and where the copies go.
  • Play the interview twice: first for Isaiah's and Grandma's views on facts and stories, then for every negative and echo question. Students mark which ones show surprise.
  • Check the answers with a show of hands: ask Didn't you have breakfast today? and similar questions. Students who did say Yes, I did; the others say No, I didn't.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Learning reimagined

    adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that

    1. Lesson 1College for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
    2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
    3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
    4. Lesson 4School in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

  2. Unit 2 Work-life balance

    be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions

    1. Lesson 5Who decided a week is 40 hours?Formal rules: be required to, be entitled to, be exempt from
    2. Lesson 6A paid year off: rest or research?Present participle clauses for time and reason
    3. Lesson 7Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?Perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done
    4. Lesson 8Why is the first Monday of September a day off?Participle phrases after conjunctions

  3. Unit 3 Turning points

    reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition

    1. Lesson 9The keyboard that opened the officeReduced relative clauses: -ing and the past participle
    2. Lesson 10Earthrise: the photo that changed how we see EarthPreposition + which and whom
    3. Lesson 11A city of white palaces for six monthsSentence relative clauses: which for a whole clause
    4. Lesson 12The count that took eight years?Noun + preposition: a need for, a solution to, access to

  4. Unit 4 News and truth

    although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have

    1. Lesson 13A newspaper of their ownLinkers of contrast: although, even though, whereas and while
    2. Lesson 14Bat-people on the Moon?The impersonal passive: It is said that…
    3. Lesson 15Read like a fact-checkerLinkers of contrast: despite, in spite of, however and even so
    4. Lesson 16Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

  5. Unit 5 Travel that gives back

    so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing

    1. Lesson 17Seven rules for the wild?Linkers of purpose: to, in order to, so as to, so that
    2. Lesson 18A lottery to see firefliesModifying comparatives and superlatives
    3. Lesson 19Sunrise with the turtlesLinkers of reason and result
    4. Lesson 20Volunteer on vacation?Verb + object + preposition + -ing

  6. Unit 6 Sport and society

    verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs

    1. Lesson 21The college team that changed disability sportVerb + noun collocations
    2. Lesson 22When women played pro baseballPhrasal verbs: what the particles mean
    3. Lesson 23Who needs a referee?The for and against essay: plan and linkers
    4. Lesson 24The comeback of Jim ThorpeNouns from phrasal verbs

  7. Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

    past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove

    1. Lesson 25Homes built into the cliffsPast participle clauses with a passive meaning
    2. Lesson 26A house over a waterfallQuantifier + of which and of whom
    3. Lesson 27From factory to art museumReport language: headings, impersonal style, recommendations
    4. Lesson 28The towers the city tried to pull downTurn out and prove + to-infinitive or that clause

  8. Unit 8 Generations

    adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

    1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
    2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
    3. Lesson 31 · you're hereConversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
    4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What are negative questions?
Negative questions start with a negative auxiliary: Didn't you miss home? Isn't it hard? Wasn't it cold? They show surprise or check something the speaker thinks is true. In formal English, not comes after the subject instead: Did you not miss home? The B2 lesson Conversations kept for history on edio.ai teaches them through StoryCorps and a grandson's interview with his grandmother.
How do you answer a negative question?
Say yes if it's true and no if it isn't, just as you would for a positive question. Didn't you go? Yes, I did means you went; No, I didn't means you didn't. Isn't it hard? No, it isn't means it's easy. Mixed answers such as Yes, I didn't are wrong in English. A table in Conversations kept for history on edio.ai sets out both answers for four negative questions.
What are echo questions?
An echo question repeats what someone just said and puts a question word in place of the surprising part: I walked two miles to school. → You walked how far? The word order stays as in the statement, and the voice rises at the end. You did what? asks about the whole action. In Conversations kept for history on edio.ai, Isaiah's echo question to his grandmother turns out to be his best question.
What's the difference between negative questions and question tags?
Both can check something you think is true. A question tag comes after a statement: It was cold, wasn't it? A negative question puts the auxiliary first: Wasn't it cold? A negative question can also show surprise: Didn't you hear the alarm? On edio.ai, question tags come in B1.1, and negative questions in Conversations kept for history, a B2 lesson.
Is it “Didn't you miss home?” or “Don't you missed home?”
It's Didn't you miss home? Didn't already shows the past, so the main verb stays in the base form, with no to: not Don't you missed or Didn't you to miss. With be, one past form is enough: Wasn't it hard?, not Isn't it was hard? These are the common mistakes in Conversations kept for history on edio.ai, and its chat uses them as wrong replies.
What is StoryCorps?
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit that records conversations between two people who know each other, such as a grandson and his grandmother. Dave Isay, a radio documentary producer, founded it in 2003, and its first booth opened on October 23, 2003, in Grand Central Terminal in New York. Two people talk for 40 minutes while a trained facilitator handles the recording. Isaiah's explainer in Conversations kept for history on edio.ai tells the story.
Where are StoryCorps recordings kept?
With the speakers' permission, a copy goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, which calls StoryCorps one of its earliest collections that is 100 percent born digital. The collection isn't all online, and the Library doesn't give out copies: people have to ask StoryCorps. Recordings from Historias, launched in 2009 for Latina and Latino stories, are also kept at the University of Texas at Austin. Conversations kept for history on edio.ai explains both.
How do I teach negative questions to B2 students?
Start from real surprise: tell the class something unexpected and let students react. Then show the auxiliary for each tense, practice the yes / no answers and add echo questions last. Conversations kept for history on edio.ai moves from Isaiah's explainer and his interview with his grandmother to the scheme, a choice drill, typed negative questions, a table of echo questions and two more drills.
What's a good game for practicing negative and echo questions?
Play “Two truths and a lie” with reactions: each student tells three facts about their past, and classmates react with an echo question (You met who?) and a negative question (Weren't you nervous?) before they guess the lie. In Conversations kept for history on edio.ai, a wheel of interview prompts closes the speaking chapter: Ask a classmate about the farthest place they have ever traveled to.
What's good homework for negative questions?
Good homework pairs each question with its answer: type Didn't you live on a farm? from the hint you / live, then give the short answer that matches the facts. Add a quiz on correct questions and a short article to complete. All ten homework tasks in Conversations kept for history on edio.ai check themselves, ending with an article about a classmate's first winter and Isaiah's answer to Quincy.
How do you practice negative and echo questions one-to-one?
Interview each other about a big move or a first job: one asks, the other answers, and the interviewer reacts with Wasn't it hard? or You did what? before a follow-up question. Then swap. The chat in Conversations kept for history on edio.ai works without a partner: the student interviews Elsie, who drove a city bus for thirty-one years, and reacts with You started when?
Are there interactive exercises for negative questions?
Yes. This page plays three parts of Conversations kept for history, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, without an account: Isaiah's interview with his grandmother; a gap-fill that builds negative questions from hints; and the chat in which the student interviews Elsie. Everything else needs an account.
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