How to Ask Questions in Russian: Question Words and Yes/No Intonation

English dresses its questions up. We add a helper verb ("Do you know?"), we flip the subject and verb ("Are you ready?"), we raise our voice at the end. Russian does far less. There are two core patterns: a yes/no question, which keeps the exact words of a statement and changes only the melody, and a question-word question, which opens with a word like кто ("who") or где ("where"). Learn those two patterns and the core question words below, and you can ask almost anything.

The question words, on one screen

Here is the core set. Each one opens a question and is usually the first word in it. The rest of this article is just these words, slowed down, plus the handful of places where English speakers reliably mix two of them up.

Russian	English	Example
кто	who	Кто э́то? — Who is that?
что	what	Что э́то? — What is that?
где	where (location)	Где вокза́л? — Where is the station?
куда́	where to	Куда́ ты идёшь? — Where are you going?
отку́да	where from	Отку́да ты? — Where are you from?
когда́	when	Когда́ по́езд? — When is the train?
почему́	why (cause)	Почему́ ты опозда́л? — Why were you late?
заче́м	what for (purpose)	Заче́м тебе́ э́то? — What do you need that for?
как	how	Как дела́? — How are things?
ско́лько	how many / how much	Ско́лько э́то сто́ит? — How much is this?
како́й	what kind / which	Како́й цвет? — What colour?
кото́рый	which (one)	Кото́рый час? — What time is it?
чей	whose	Чей э́то телефо́н? — Whose phone is this?

Yes/no questions: let your voice do the work

This is the pattern that surprises people. To turn a Russian statement into a yes/no question, you change nothing about the words — not their order, not their form — and change only your intonation (the rise and fall of your voice, the tune of the sentence, not anything you write down). Compare:

Вы говори́те по-ру́сски. — You speak Russian. (statement, voice falls)
Вы говори́те по-ру́сски? — Do you speak Russian? (same words, voice rises)

There is no do, no does, no inversion. And the rise is not the gentle end-of-sentence lift English uses. In a neutral Russian yes/no question the pitch jumps up sharply on the stressed syllable of the word you are really asking about — most often the verb — and then drops away again. Russian teachers number this melody ИК-3 (intonation contour 3); the falling tune of a plain statement is ИК-1. You do not need the labels, but you do need the move: find the key word, lift your voice on its stressed syllable, let the rest fall.

Move the lift, change the question. Because the rise marks the word in focus, it carries meaning. Вы говори́те по-ру́сски? (rise on the verb) asks whether you speak Russian at all. Вы говори́те по-ру́сски? (rise on the last word) asks whether it's Russian you speak — as opposed to some other language.

Answering is easy: Да ("yes") or Нет ("no"). In real speech Russians often reply by echoing the verb instead of a bare "yes": Вы говори́те по-ру́сски? — Говорю́. ("Do you speak Russian? — I do.")

The formal option: the particle ли

There is a second, more formal way to ask a yes/no question, using the particle ли (a particle is a short helper word that never changes its form). Put the word you're asking about first, then ли, then the rest:

Зна́ете ли вы об э́том? — Do you know about this? (bookish / emphatic)

In everyday speech you can almost always skip ли and just use intonation. Where you really do need it is for reported ("indirect") questions — the Russian for "whether" or "if":

Я не зна́ю, придёт ли он. — I don't know whether he will come.

Where, where to, where from: где, куда́, отку́да

English makes one word, "where", do three jobs. Russian splits them, and it chooses by direction of movement, so this is worth getting right early.

Word	Asks about	Example
где	a fixed location — where something is	Где ты? — Where are you?
куда́	a destination — where to, movement towards	Куда́ ты идёшь? — Where are you going?
отку́да	an origin — where from, movement away	Отку́да ты? — Where are you from?

A quick test: if you could answer with "here / there" it's где; if the answer is "to somewhere" it's куда́; if it's "from somewhere" it's отку́да. Saying Где ты идёшь? for "where are you going" is one of the most common beginner slips — the movement makes it Куда́.

Why and what for: почему́ vs заче́м

Both of these land in English as "why", but they ask for different answers. Почему́ asks about the cause — what already happened or what reason lies behind something. Заче́м asks about the purpose — the goal or intention something is aimed at.

Почему́ ты опозда́л? — Why were you late? (what caused it — traffic, oversleeping)
Заче́м ты э́то сде́лал? — What did you do that for? (to what end, with what intention)

A neat tell: a заче́м question is naturally answered with чтобы ("in order to…"), while a почему́ question is answered with потому́ что ("because…"). If "because" fits the answer, ask with почему́; if "in order to" fits, ask with заче́м.

What kind vs which: како́й and кото́рый

These two both come out as "which" in English, and they do overlap, but the usual split is clear. Како́й asks about a quality or type — what sort of thing: Како́й цвет тебе́ нра́вится? ("What colour do you like?"). Кото́рый points to one item out of a known set or a position in an order — and it is the word in the fixed phrase for asking the time:

Кото́рый час? — What time is it? (literally "which hour")
В кото́ром часу́? — At what time?

Both words behave like adjectives: they agree with their noun in gender, number and case (the ending that shows a word's job in the sentence). So "which" shifts form to match: кака́я кни́га (feminine), како́е вино́ (neuter), каки́е лю́ди (plural). The same goes for чей ("whose"): Чей э́то дом? but Чья э́то су́мка?

Question words take endings too

A question word is still a word in a sentence, so it wears the case its job demands — exactly as any noun would. Кто and что have no gender and never go plural, but they do change ending by case, and that changes the English translation:

Form	Its job	Example
кто / что	subject (who/what does it)	Кто зна́ет? — Who knows?
кого́ / что	direct object (whom/what)	Кого́ ты ви́дишь? — Whom do you see?
кому́ / чему́	to whom / to what	Кому́ ты звони́шь? — Who are you calling?
чего́ / о чём	of what / about what	О чём ты ду́маешь? — What are you thinking about?

One more worth knowing: ско́лько ("how many / how much") is followed by the genitive case — the "of" case Russian uses for quantities. So the thing being counted changes its ending: Ско́лько книг? ("How many books?", from кни́га), Ско́лько вре́мени? ("How much time? / What's the time?", from вре́мя). If the cases are still new, start with Russian cases explained, and see Russian word order for where these question words sit.

Try it yourself

Ask the Russian question that would get each answer. Cover the answers first.

You want to know a stranger's origin. (Ask "Where are you from?")
Your friend is clearly heading out. (Ask "Where are you going?")
You want the price of something in a shop. (Ask "How much does this cost?")
You want to turn the statement Он до́ма ("He is at home") into a yes/no question.

Answers. 1. Отку́да ты? (origin → отку́да). 2. Куда́ ты идёшь? (destination → куда́, not где). 3. Ско́лько э́то сто́ит? 4. Он до́ма? — same two words, said with a rising voice on до́ма.

Questions people actually ask

How do you ask a yes/no question in Russian? You keep the same words and word order as a statement and change only your intonation: your voice rises sharply on the stressed syllable of the word you are asking about, then falls. Вы говорите по-русски? has the same words as the statement Вы говорите по-русски — only the melody differs. There is no extra word like the English "do".

What is the difference between почему and зачем? Both can translate as "why", but почему asks about the cause or reason behind something (Почему ты опоздал? — "Why were you late?"), while зачем asks about the purpose or goal (Зачем ты это сделал? — "What did you do that for?"). A зачем question is often answered with чтобы ("in order to").

What is the difference between где, куда and откуда? They split the idea of "where" by direction. Где asks about a static location (Где ты? — "Where are you?"), куда asks where to, the destination of movement (Куда ты идёшь? — "Where are you going?"), and откуда asks where from, the origin (Откуда ты? — "Where are you from?").

When do you use the particle ли? Ли marks a yes/no question a little more formally than intonation alone, and it is also how Russian says "whether" or "if" in a reported question. The word you are asking about comes first, then ли: Знаете ли вы об этом? ("Do you know about this?") and Я не знаю, придёт ли он ("I don't know whether he will come").

Questions are the fastest thing in a language to make useful — one good Ско́лько э́то сто́ит? or Где метро́? pays for itself the first day you travel. The trick is saying them out loud until the rising tune feels natural, which is exactly the kind of practice we build — start your seven-day free trial — no card required. New to the app? Search "Gora Academy" in the Apple App Store or Google Play, or open it on the web.

Sources

Munteanu, A. & Kiss, A. (2026), Form-Meaning Relations in Russian Confirmative and Surprise Declarative Questions, Language and Speech — Russian statements carry a falling final contour (ИК-1 / IC-1), while neutral yes/no questions keep the same word order and are marked by a rise-fall on the stressed syllable (ИК-3 / IC-3); the particle ли is optional.
University of Macerata, Russian Basic Course Materials: Question Words — the inventory of question words, the где (location) / куда́ (motion towards) / отку́да (motion away) split, and the fact that како́й and чей decline like adjectives and agree with their noun.
OpenRussian dictionary, entries for зачем and ли — заче́м asks about purpose or intent (answered with чтобы) as against почему́ for cause, and ли serves both as the yes/no particle after the focused word and as "whether/if" in indirect questions.