English Help Online's Blog

For today’s blog entry, I’d like to write about the verb “wonder”.  It is used when we ask ourselves a question about something we want to know about. For example:

Kate was supposed to come to my party, but she didn’t. I wonder why she didn’t come.

I wonder how much Jake’s new car cost. It looks very expensive.

Cheryl invited us over for dinner on Saturday night. I wonder what she’s going to cook.

We can also use the verb wonder with the past progressive form (was + ing) as an introduction to a very polite request. For example:

I was wondering if you could help me with my project.

I was wondering if I could have the day off tomorrow.

My wife and I were wondering if you’d like to join us for dinner tomorrow night.

Sometimes people ask me why we have to use the past tense form (was). The reason is that the action of wondering started in the past. When you ask the question, the wondering is already over and the asking of the question is happening now.  As I mentioned before, when you use this, it’s very polite.