Hey guys, today we’ll be talking about interrogative pronouns and adjectives in English. They are used to ask questions and can function as the subject or as the object.
There are five primary interrogative pronouns: what, who (used as subject and more and more often as object in everyday language), whom (used as object), whose and which. There are some more actually, which we are also going to talk about in this article.
Interrogative pronouns are typically used in direct and indirect questions and they stand for the subject or object. They usually come at the beginning of the interrogative clause and are sometimes preceded by a preposition.
Table of Contents
Direct Questions
Let’s start with direct questions, so questions that we use to ask about something in a direct way.
Interrogative Pronouns Used As the Subject
Here are some examples of interrogative pronouns used as the subject:
What happened to you?
Who did it?
Whose is this bike?
Which is yours?
Interrogative Pronouns Used As the Object
And here are some examples of interrogative pronouns used as the object:
What did you see?
Who / Whom did you ask to go with you?
For whom was this concert?
About the songs, which did you know before?
The artists have beautiful voices. Whose did you like most?
Indirect Questions
Indirect questions are questions where we embed the actual question inside another question, usually to sound more polite. Here are some examples.
Could you tell me what you saw?
Would you tell me who was performing there?
Do you know from whom I got the tickets?
About the last couple songs, can you explain to me whose these were?
Reported Questions
Interrogative pronouns are also used in reported questions. Here are some examples:
You didn’t tell me whose they were.
I just want to know what you saw.
I sometimes wonder who they are.
She asked whom to invite to the concert.
I couldn’t figure out which was the bass guitar.
Here the sentences aren’t questions actually, but they contain embedded questions which we just report.
Some More Interrogative Pronouns
As mentioned before, there are some more interrogative pronouns in English, maybe not used so often as the ones mentioned before. Here belong: whatever, whoever, whomever, whichever and the even less frequently used whatsoever, whosoever, whomsoever and whichsoever. The latter ones are used almost exclusively in very formal or literary language.
You often use these interrogative pronouns in questions to express surprise or confusion. Here are some examples:
Something destroyed the whole city in an instant. Whatever could that be?
Whoever would do such a stupid thing?
Whomever did they meet in the middle of the destroyed city?
They can stay, leave or help. Whichever are they going to choose?
Interrogative Adjectives
Some of the pronouns mentioned before can be used as interrogative adjectives as well. Then they are followed by noun phrases. In particular, here belong: what, whose and which. Have a look:
What food is best before a race?
Whose bike would you like to borrow next time?
Which racetrack is the most difficult one?
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