text: how do you write this in question format? president aguinaldo is the first president of the philippines.? how do i use nominals in asking questions? is president aguinaldo the first president of the philippines?  ___  questions are formed from sentences with nominals just as they are formed from sentences without. ___  just want to clarify "president" is not the direct object of "is" as another answer indicates; rather, "president" is the subject complement (an adjective or nominal that follows a linking verb--"is"--and renames or modifies the subject).  since "is" is an intransitive verb, it cannot take a direct object.