Pronouns: interrogative, question words

 

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. There are five interrogative pronouns in English: Who, Whom, What, Which, and Whose. They are also known as question words or wh-words.

 

Who and Whom are used to ask about people. Who is used as the subject of the sentence:

• Who is coming to the party?
• Who was there?
• Who did that?

 

Whom is used as the object of the sentence:

• Whom did you visit? (You is the subject. Whom is the object of ‘visit.’)
• Whom did she talk to? (She is the subject. Whom is the object of ‘talk.’)

 

We often use What to ask questions about things or activities. It is used when there are many possible answers:

• What do you want for dinner?
• What is your friend’s name?
• What time are we supposed to be there?

 

Which is used when there is a smaller number of possible answers:

• Which colour do you prefer, red or blue?
• Which train should I take?
• Which seat would you like?

 

Compare:

• What is your name? – It’s John.
• Which is your name? (looking at a list of names) – This one here, ‘John.’

 

Whose is used to ask about the owner of an object:

• Whose sweater is this?
• Whose shoes are these?
• Whose phone is that?