Interrogative mood - Definition and Overview

In 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.