Hello my dear readers.

If you are still a fan of asking questions, then the topic “Interrogative pronouns in English” may be one of your favorites. In it, my students and I analyze in detail what is used and what for. So today, wait for examples, rules, and exercises.

What is it?

Interrogative pronouns usually begin. That is, they are used to identify a person or subject of action. The main such words include who, what, which, whose. But we will also analyze a couple of not so popular ones.

Total parsing

I have for you a table with translation and with transcription of all pronouns that you can use in interrogative sentences. It will be understandable for both children and adults who are just starting their studies.

Pronoun	Example
Who   - who	Who  was that man who called you so late?- Who this manwho called you so late?
What   - What	What  is the problem?- what per problem? What  did you buy? -what  did you buy
Which   - which which	Which  answer is correct?- Which answer correct?
When   - when	When are you planning to finish the presentation? - When are you going to finish the presentation?
Whose   - Whose whose	Whose  car is this?- Whose this is car?
Additionally
Whom   - to	Whom  are you writing to?- To you you write?
Why   - why	Why didn’ t you call me? “Why didn't you call me?”
Where   - where, where	Where  did your brother go?- Where went your brother?
How   - How	How  did you manage to do it in time?- how you managed from by this during?

Tips to learn

Of course, in general, everything is quite simple. But there are a few more features that you need to remember.

•   in the modern English question it is most often posed at the end of a sentence.

Who are you going to spend Christmas with?- Cby whom you are you going conduct Christmas?

With whom are you going to spend Christmas?

• If you do not know what to put: which  or what  - check if you have a choice. If, for example, you need to choose from 2 colors, then use which. If there is no choice, use what.

There is only red and green pencil. Which color do you prefer? - There are red and green pencils. Which color do you like more?

What colors do you like the most? - What colors do you like most?

• Very often in the language you can find forms how much  or how many. And both options have a “how much” value. The difference lies solely in the fact that the first form is used with objects that cannot be counted. For example, time  - time. The second form is with items that can be counted. For example, pictures  - paintings.

How much   time does it take -how many time this is takes?

How many   pictures did you buy? -how many paintings you bought?

• The pronoun whose is used more as an adjective. And it is usually followed by a noun.

Whose   doll is it? -Whose this is doll?

Whose   folder is this? -Whose this is folder?

Well, my dears, I hope that I have closed all your existing ambiguities in this topic. Of course, as without practice. It would not be me if I forgot about such an important part. Therefore, you will find further. And of course I won’t leave you in the dark - you can get acquainted with the answers when you are done.

Share in the comments if you had any ambiguities in this lesson and what questions you had. I will answer all-all-all.

In the meantime, time to say goodbye.

See you, my good ones.

There are several types of pronouns in English. Each of these species has its own functions and its speech coloring in the language. Therefore, each type of pronoun is necessary and important in English.

On our site we have already discussed some types of pronouns. Today, we examine in detail interrogative pronouns in the English language.

From the very name of the pronouns it follows that they serve to form questions. We will talk today about how this is done and what other functions of interrogative pronouns.

Friends, you know these words well, without which it is impossible to formulate a question in English. It’s just possible that you weren’t aware that these words are called interrogative pronouns or Interrogative Pronouns. Attention, here they are:

• Who? - Who?
• What? - What?
• Where? - Where? Where?
• When? - When?
• Why? - Why?
• How? - How?

Interrogative pronouns help formulate a special question or Special Question in English. Now consider each pronoun individually.

Who? - Who?

This pronoun refers to people, and in question it acts as a subject. In this case, forming a question, we do not use the auxiliary verb Do. In addition, the verb immediately after Who?Must be in the third person singular. Note:

• Who   knows the answer? - who  knows  answer?
• Who   are these women? - who  these  women?
• Who wrotethisletter? - Who wrote this letter?

What? - What?

Pronoun What?  Refers to inanimate objects. We build a question with him when we want to learn something about an object, actions or circumstances. With this pronoun we use the auxiliary verb Doin question (if we are not talking about a verb tobe).   For example:

• What   did you answer him? - What  you  his  answered?
• What   is your name? - How  you  name is? (What is your name?)
• What   do you wish for your help? - What  you  wish for your help?

Where? - Where? Where?

We use this pronoun when we want to ask about the location, location, etc. With this pronoun we also use the verb Do tobe:

• Where   did you meet Sam? - where  you  met  Sam?
• Where   does Suzy go every morning? - Where  walks around  Susie  every  morning?
• Where   did they bring the TV-set? - Where  they are  suffered  TV?

When? - When?

Pronoun When?We use it when we want to ask about time. We also use the verb Doif it is not a verb tobe:

• When   do you go to bed? - when  you  go to bed  sleep?
• When   does Alex get up? - when  Alex  wakes up?
• When did you see him for the last time? - when  you  saw  his  in  last  time?

Why? - Why?

This pronoun helps to ask a reason or purpose. To form a question with this word, we use the verb Doif it is not a verb tobe:

• Why   did you get up so early? - why  you  awoke  So  early?
• Why   is Andrew so tired? - why  Andrew  such  tired?
• Why do the children cry? - why  children  cry?

How? - How?

This pronoun helps to ask a question about the course of action, and also participates in the question “How much? “How many?” We also follow the rule of the auxiliary verb Doif the verb does not participate in the question tobe:

• How ereyourparents? - How are your parents?
• How did you get all these things?
• How many   tickets did you get for tomorrow?

How to navigate in interrogative pronouns?

In order to quickly learn and be well-versed in English interrogative pronouns, you need to train as much as possible to ask special questions in English.

Choose for yourself long offers that contain as much information as possible and to which you can ask a maximum of special questions. Such suggestions can be found in textbooks or in fiction in English. For instance:

Alex studies English, because he goes to London next year.

• Who   studies English?
• Who   goes to London next year?
• What   language does Alex study?
• Why does Alex study English?
• What   does Alex do next year?
• Where   does Alex go next year?
• When does Alex go to London?

As you can see, to a fairly short sentence we asked seven questions. Try it and you! Ask mentally questions to everything that you see around, to everything that happens. Use interrogative pronouns as often as possible, and you are sure to make friends with them! Good luck!

Interrogative pronouns  (Latin pronomina interrogativa, English interrogative pronouns, also interrogative words) - pronouns that mean that the speaker is not able to identify the object or its properties and encourages the listener to help him to realize this identification (cf. "who?", "what?", "which?", "which?", etc. ) Sometimes interrogative pronouns are combined with relative ones in the category of interrogative-relative pronouns. This is due to the fact that the same pronouns are used to express direct and indirect questions.

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Subtitles

The main categories of interrogative pronouns and their features

Interrogative pronouns can be divided into semantic categories such as Face, Thing, Co-driver, Tool, A place, Quality, number, Time, Modus operandi, Cause  and others. The semantic category corresponds to the category of the word to which the interrogative pronoun refers. Not all categories are necessarily represented in any language. A part may be absent, a part may be combined into a larger category, and then it is considered that in a language a more detailed opposition is irrelevant. Semantic categories in different languages \u200b\u200bare arranged differently, which is associated with the grammar features of a particular language.

Categories Face  and Thing

This class includes such pronouns of the Russian language as who? what?.

Animation Expression

Contrast face  vs. thing  - This is an opposition in animation. Such an opposition is found almost everywhere, even in languages \u200b\u200bwith a weakly expressed contrast in animation. The following statement is believed to be close to universal: “Interrogative pronouns demonstrate a dichotomy man  vs. not a human  or, in more rare cases, animate  vs. inanimate". However, there are languages \u200b\u200bin which this opposition is absent, for example, in the Terena languages kuti  "who what?" and guarecena iʃi  "who what?"

On the other hand, it is possible to present the category of animation in more detail, as, for example, in the Utah language. Different sources provide different analysis of the system of interrogative pronouns of the category Face / Item  of this language:

• Sapir: man  vs. animal  vs thing
• Givon: animate being  vs. non-reference object  vs. thing (< место) .

Number expression

Some languages \u200b\u200bmay distinguish pronouns. who?  singular and plural. Examples of such languages \u200b\u200bare Finnish ( kuka? - ketkä?  "Who?" and mikä? - mitkä?  "what?") and Turkish ( kim ?? - kimler?  "Who?" and ne? - neler?  "what?").

Genus expression

There are languages \u200b\u200bthat distinguish between masculine and feminine in interrogative pronouns related to the category of person. Such a phenomenon is found, for example, in the Tamil language ( eval  - "who? (about men)" and evan  - "who? (about women)") and house ( wā̱nẹ̄  - "who? (about men)" and wā̱cẹ̄  - “who? (about women)”]).

Courtesy

In some languages \u200b\u200bit is possible to express politeness with the help of the interrogative pronoun. So, in Tamil along with the pronouns "who?" for women and men there is a pronoun evar, common to both genera, expressing reverence for the face, which is potentially the subject of the question. In Japanese, there are several degrees of politeness: だ れ dare  "who (neutral)?" - ど の か た donocata  and ど な た donata  "who (politely)?" - ど ち ら さ ま dothira-sama  "who (even more politely)?".

Categories Co-driver  and Tool

In category Co-driver  pronouns appear that indicate that a person is the owner of a certain subject, and the speaker wants to identify that person. In Russian, this pronoun whose?  and whom?  in sentences like "Whose notebook is this?"

In category Tool  pronouns appear that indicate that a certain action was performed using an unknown object, and the speaker wants to identify this object. In Russian, this pronoun than?.

In the work of M. Sisou on the typology of interrogative pronouns, it is noted that special forms for these categories were not found: in all the languages \u200b\u200bconsidered, they are case forms of pronouns of categories Face  and Thing  respectively. However, this notion does not correspond to the Russian pronoun whose?obviously unrelated to the pronoun who?.

Category A place

Besides the pronoun "where?" in many languages \u200b\u200bother pronouns of the category are found A placebut for the most part these are words with the meaning "where?" and where?". Some languages, thanks to developed systems of locative cases, distinguish several types of interrogative pronouns of a place, for example, Lezgi distinguishes six such pronouns:

Pronoun	Meaning	Value	Case
ginag  / hinag /	"where"	"Where?"
jiniz  / hiniz /	"where to"	"where?"	(Dative)
jinin  / hinin /	"where of"	"relating to which space?"	(Genitive)
jinai  / hinaj /	"where from"	"from (inside)?"	(Elativ)
guinea  / hina /	"where at"	"where (at some point in space)?"	(Addessive)
gynal  / hinal /	"where on"	"where (on top)?"	(Superessive)
ginra  / hinra /	"where in"	"where (inside)?"	(Inessive)

Category Time

A language can have several category pronouns TimeHowever, this is quite rare and the number of such pronouns is small. For example, the language of Tuvalu:

Aafea "when" anafea "when (in the past)" maafea "when (in the present)"

Category number

   kin yaŋŋay eat how "How do you eat this?" nàk thâwrày heavy how.much "How heavy is it?"

This contrast is still poorly studied, but it seems that there is a close relationship between the categories Measure / Degree  and number:

Category Quality

Pronouns of this category are traditionally formed from other interrogative words (English what kind of, German was für ein). The exception is Latin with the pronoun qualis  and the language of whatman with gungarrma, which during translation is often conveyed by interrogative pronouns of categories number  and Way:

Gungarrma madin what.kind word.ABS "What is this word?"

Verbal interrogative pronouns

   yinggiya "who?" ngamanda "what?" guda "where?" nyangurlang "when?" gungarrma "what?", "how?", "how much?"

There are certain patterns of derivation of interrogative pronouns in a language. So, category pronouns Face  almost never formed from pronouns of another category (exceptions: utah, guarecena, etc.). Also, a special pronoun is almost always used for a category A place  (exceptions: pyrahan, tops, etc.). Category pronouns Cause  in most cases are formed from category pronouns Thingbut there are cases and formations from categories Way  and A place. The possibilities of derivation of interrogative pronouns of one category from interrogative pronouns of another can be seen in the figure.

Proposal line item

According to World Atlas of Language Structures, there are two common models for how interrogative phrases are arranged (interrogative word with

  → Declension of interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns. The declension of interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns indicate that the sentence contains a question.

For example:

• what  is the day or century before that which is infinite? (A. Fet)
• On than  wrote before they learned to make paper from wood?

The pronoun “who” in the interrogative sentence refers to animated nouns denoting humans, animals; “What” - to inanimate nouns, meaning the question and the subject, thing, phenomenon. The interrogative pronoun “whose” expresses the question of belonging; “What” - about a sign, quality; “How much” is the question of quantity, etc.

The pronouns related to the category of interrogative are diverse in form. Among them are noun pronouns ( who what) pronouns-numerals ( how), adjectives ( which which whose) The pronouns of each of these groups have morphological features of the part of speech that they replace.

Who! What? How many?

The interrogative pronouns “who”, “what”, “how much” vary in cases (as nouns and quantitative numerals). The pronouns “who,” “what,” and “how much” do not have grammatical forms.

The verb-predicate is consistent with the pronoun “who” in the masculine singular: Who's come?  (even if the answer is about a woman or about many people). With the pronoun "what", the verb-predicate is consistent in the middle gender singular: What was it? What happened

The declension of the interrogative pronouns “who”, “what”, “how much” (table)

Them.	who	what	how
Rod	whom	why	how many
Dat	to whom	why	how many
Vin.	whom	what	how many / how many
Creat.	by whom	than	how many
Suggestion	(o) com	(about what	(o) how many

Examples of offers:

Who  this is my brother. Who  are you waiting? With whom  you have said? I dont know, about whom  you are asking.

what  this is? - The book. what  he said? About what  you think?   In what a business?

how many  are you old how many  man come? how many  kilometers to the city? How many  Have you visited the cities? How many  volumes is this composition? How many  have you refused people?

Which one? Which the? Whose?

The interrogative pronouns “what”, “which”, “whose” change as adjectives, by gender and number (which, which, which, which; which, which, which, which; whose whose whose whose) and cases, that is, they are inclined.

Etymologically Russian interrogative pronoun " which”Is connected with the Lithuanian kõks -“ what ”, the Latin word qualis -“ what ”(remember the word“ qualification ”and the English quality - quality) and denotes the question of quality, property, attribute.

The word " which the"Originally meant" which of the two. " This word is Indo-European, compare with Lithuanian katràs - “which” (of two), Greek (Ionian) koteros - “which of two”, etc. Now it means: which one, of cash? For example: Which puppy do you take?  (which puppy is available)

The pronoun " whose"- possessive-interrogative, means the question of belonging to whom or something.

Declension of interrogative pronouns “which”, “what” in masculine units number in the table (for other forms see topic)

Them.	which	which the
Rod	which	whom
Dat	which	to which
Vin.		as Rod (animated.) or as Him. (inanimate.)
Creat.	how	which
Suggestion	(o) which	(about which

Whichis the weather today? Forgot which  today is the day.

Which the  hour? Which  did you become on the list?

The declension of the pronoun "whose"

Singular				Multiple number for all genera
Case	Male gender	Neuter gender	Feminine	whose
Them.	whose	whose	whose
Rod	whose	whose	whose	whose
Dat	whose	whose	whose	whose
Vin.		Them.	whose	like them. (for inanimate.) or Rod. (for animation.)
Creat.	whose	whose	whose	whose
Suggestion	(o) whose	(o) whose

Interrogative pronouns ( interrogative pronouns) They are also few, like. Interrogative pronouns in English include the following words: who  (Who), what  (what, what; and also with the meaning of “who”, if we are talking about a person’s profession or position), whose  (whose), which  (which the). Interrogative pronouns in English  we need for education. Each of the listed pronouns has its own nuances of use, so we will analyze them in order.

How to use interrogative pronouns in English?

First in line pronoun who. This pronoun is used in relation to persons. This pronoun has two case forms: nominative - directly who, object case - whom. The form of this pronoun in the object case is rarely used, mainly in the official and book styles of speech. In colloquial speech, they use who. What functions in the sentence does this interrogative pronoun in English perform? It can be:

•   . Note that in this case the verb-predicate accompanying who  will be in the form of a third person singular.
  

  Who knows the answer to this question? - Who knows the answer to this question?

  Who broke the window? - Who broke the window?

• The nominal part of the predicate. Now we will coordinate in the person and number with the subject.
  

  Who are those strange women? “Who are those strange women?”

  Who is your husband? - Who is your husband?

• Direct and indirect prepositional. Note that the accompanying these interrogative pronouns in English is usually placed at the end of a sentence.
  

  Who (whom) did you invite to the party? - Who did you invite to the party?

  Who (whom) did you show this book to? “To whom did you show this book?”

  Who (whom) are you waiting for here? “Who are you waiting for here?”

  Who (whom) are you going to spend the holidays with? - Who will you spend the holidays with?

Next, let's talk about the interrogative pronoun what. This pronoun is used for inanimate objects. Its functions in the sentence are the same as the pronouns who. That is, the pronoun in the sentence what  may be:

• Subject. The predicate verb in this case is also used in the form of a third person singular.
  

  What was written in this article? - What was written in this article?

  What is it? - What is it?

• The nominal part of the predicate. The linking verb is consistent in the person and number with the subject.
  

  What is the cost of this yellow bag? - How much is this yellow bag?

  What are the results of this competition? - What are the results of the competition?

• Direct and prepositional indirect addition. The preposition related to this interrogative pronoun is usually at the end of the sentence.
  

  What did you choose? - What did you choose?

  What have you lost? - What did you lose?

  What were you talking about? - What were you talking about?

Interrogative pronoun what  can be used with respect to persons if we seek to know a person’s profession or position. For example:

- What is he? - Who is he?
  - He is a builder. - He is a builder.

But this nuance does not apply to issues aimed at finding out a name, surname, and family relations. In this case, we use the pronoun who.

An interrogative pronoun in English like whose, in a sentence plays a function and faces a noun defined by it.

Whose document have you brought? - Whose document did you bring?

Whose bag is it? - Who's bag is this?

Interrogative pronoun which  can be applied to both animate and inanimate objects. It involves the choice of a limited number of persons or objects:

Which dish did you like? - What dish did you like? (there were several)

Which language would you like to learn? - What language would you like to learn? (for example, in courses only among 5-6 languages \u200b\u200bare selected)