Questions unusual Word Order

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martinaposp

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Hi,

I would like to ask about WORD ORDER in questions. Is there a possibility I could make this sentence:

There are no books on the table?

I know it does not follow the general rules of Word Order in questions. Just I imagined a situation, where the person is used to have the books on the table and he is wondering why they are not there.
 

Barb_D

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Yes, in speech we do that all the time.

A: Could you get the books I left on the table.
B: Uh... there aren't any books on the table.
A: There aren't any books on the table? That's odd - I was sure I'd put them... oh, never mind. I left them in my backpack.

("There aren't any books?" is more common than "There are no books?" in my experience.)
 
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