Questions: short forms

In informal situations, especially in speaking, we can reduce questions rather than using complete clauses. Short questions can be clauses, phrases or even single words:

When we shorten questions, the auxiliary verb and the subject are both often omitted (ellipsis):

A:

Got the key?(full form:Have you got the key?)

B:

Yeah.

A:

Working tonight?(full form:Are you working tonight?)

B:

No, thankfully.

When we know a lot about the context, we often shorten questions:

A:

Are you looking forward to the party?(full form)

B:

Not really.

A:

Why aren’t you?(full form:Why aren’t you looking forward to the party?)

B:

I’m not a great fan of parties.

When we know a lot about the context, it would be unusual and often too formal to use the full form of the question.