Whether is not a question word, although it looks like one.
Question words beginning with wh are the following:
- what
- which
- where
- who
- whose
- when
- why
The rule for making questions using question words is fairly simple:
Question word + auxiliary + subject + infinite or, "QUASI" is a useful acronym. (It is not infallible but it works most of the time)
1) Which colour did she choose to make it? Blue or green? (if there is a limited choice)
2) What colours did she use? (a wider choice of colours is inferred here)
3) Who made it? Did you? OR "Was it me or you?" (in this case, who is the subject of the question and does not require an auxiliary)
You can omit the wh question word and ask a yes/no type question.
Auxiliary + subject + infinite
- "Did you use blue or green?" asked Maria.
- Maria asked, "Did you make it?"
If you wanted to use whether you have to rephrase your sentence. Note that the following are not questions. There is no question mark at the end.
- Maria asked whether she used blue or green.
- Maria asked whether [name] made it or not.
If you really need to make questions with whether then the following is acceptable
- Do you know whether she used blue or green to make her scarf (it)?
- Did you find out whether it was me or her who made it?
You can certainly ask "What did happen last night". However, the meaning changes to one of emphasis. The question asks not only what happened, but in contrast to some earlier discussion where something else was said not to have happened.
In the exasperated "Who does want to eat", it is the same situation: emphasis.
We also need the auxiliary, if the WH-word subject is paired with the verb "do":
- What {did you do | did you*} last night.
The * marked form sounds archaic. This construction probably occurs to avoid a perceived ambiguity: "what did you last night" sounds as if "did" is still auxiliary, and the verb is missing. "What did I what last night? What did I eat? What did I watch on TV? Oh, you're asking me what I did, in some outdated way of speaking; very funny!"
(Some uses of this word order in questions still occur in British English, I think, such as, "Have you the time?" "Had you enough to eat?" Children all over the English speaking world continue to pick up the syntax from nursery rhymes: "Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?")
Note that since the "did" is required in "what did you do yesterday", it is possible to use it with or without emphasis:
- What { did* | did } you do yesterday? [Emphasis: I already know what you didn't do; please give me the contrasting information: what you did. No emphasis: inform me about your yesterday's activities.]
We can also put the emphasis almost anywhere in the above sentence: we can emphasize "did", "you", "do" or "yesterday", in order to make any of them the focus:
In our earlier sentences, we cannot use "did" without emphasis:
It is possible for another word to be emphasized simultaneously, in some very specific contextual situation where things are being contrasted in parallel pairs, or something of the sort:
- Okay so we established what didn't happen to Joe; so what did happen to Bob? [The focus is on Joe and Bob, and on what did happen to the former and didn't happen to the latter: two things in one sentence contrast pairwise with parallel things in the other.]
Best Answer
Yes, you have it right.
The idiom essentially translates like:
or, otherwises, an implied "challenge" to the recipient of the question to say otherwise.
So, like the examples you have written, you'll want to add/or remove an auxiliary verb (for these contractions, the not, or 'nt) when asking the question, to make the verb "opposite."