Hello, young learners! Today, we are going to learn about something fun in grammar called Rhetorical Questions. Now, what are they? A rhetorical question is a question you ask without expecting an answer. You ask it to make a point or to make someone think. It's like saying "Isn't it a beautiful day?" You are not really asking if the day is beautiful, but you are saying that it is a beautiful day. To make a rhetorical question from a sentence, you usually turn it into a question using a helping verb. If the sentence is positive, the question becomes negative, and if the sentence is negative, the question becomes positive. Let's look at some examples to understand better!
1. Your time is limited. (frame a Rhetorical question)
Isn’t your time limited?
2. You have been humble and sweet in all your deeds.
Haven’t you been humble and sweet in all your deeds?
3. Ambition beyond existence is the essential purpose of our being.
Isn’t ambition beyond existence the essential purpose of our being?
4. Today, the rains fall on empty streets.
Today, don’t the rains fall on empty streets?
5. They aren’t free from social conditioning.
Are they free from social conditioning?
6. We became part of a larger reality.
Didn’t we become a part of a larger reality?
7. Imagination is everything.
Isn’t imagination everything?
8. It’s not strange that my children refuse to believe that their grandfather and laughter were even strangers.
Is it strange that my children refuse to believe that their grandfather and laughter were even strangers?
9. A child is inherently curious about the world.
Isn’t a child inherently curious about the world?
10. This pre-drawn massacre is a regular feature.
Isn’t this pre-drawn massacre a regular feature?
11. Happiness can’t be bought with cash.
Can happiness be bought with cash?
12. This is an extreme case of intellectual subversion.
Isn’t this an extreme case of intellectual subversion?
Difficult Words and Their Meanings
Humble - Not proud; modest.
Deeds - Actions or things that people do.
Ambition - A strong wish to achieve something.
Existence - The state of being real or alive.
Essential - Very important or necessary.
Conditioning - The process of training someone to behave in a certain way.
Reality - What is real or true.
Imagination - The ability to create pictures or ideas in your mind.
Refuse - To say that you will not do or accept something.
Inherently - Naturally or as a basic part of something.
Curious - Wanting to know or learn about something.
Massacre - The killing of a large number of people.
Feature - An important part or quality of something.
Intellectual - Relating to your ability to think and understand things.
Subversion - The act of trying to destroy or damage a system or belief.