Lesson 7: Ja-/Nein-Fragen
7.1 Working Backwards from ja or nein
First we want to consider the answer we're attempting to get at: Do we want a Yes or No answer, or do we need a little more information?If the answer is Yes or No, then we ask a yes-or-no question. In German, this is a Ja-/Nein-Frage.
Let's say we want to find out if Gisela is reading the news right now. A Yes/No answer is the most direct answer anyone could give.
What we don't want to know are things like how long she has been reading. We're not interested in finding out when she's going to drink tea, nor do we want to know who her neighbors