English Question Words and Interrogative Pronouns

To ask a question in English, you usually start with a question word. There are seven main ones: who, what, which, where, when, why and how. Each asks for one kind of answer: Where do you live? (asking for a place).

The seven words

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1. 1Who is he?
2. 2Where is it?
3. 3When is it?
4. 4How much is it?

A person: who. A place: where. A time: when. Money: how much.

Who is for people, what for things. If the answer is a person, use who:

• Who told you? (a person told you: my friend)
• What do you want? (a thing, an idea or an action: money, nothing)

Which also asks about a thing or a person, but from a small set. If any answer is possible, use what; if there is a short list, use which:

• Which way do we go, this way or that way? (two ways to choose from)
• What do you want to eat? (any food at all)

Where, when and why ask for a place, a time and a reason. The answer to why very often starts with because:

• Where is my money? (over there)
• When did it happen? (last year)
• Why did she go? (because she was tired)

How asks about the way something happens or is:

• How are you? (fine: how you feel)
• How do I get there? (by bus: the way to go)

Which ones are pronouns?

Grammar books put these words in two groups.

A pronoun stands in the place of a noun, the person or thing you ask about. Two pronouns are not in the seven:

• Whose asks about the owner: Whose bag is this? (It's Anna's.)
• Whom is the formal who as an object: To whom should I send it? (very formal writing)

In everyday English almost everyone says Who did you see?, and that is correct. One detail: before a noun, as in whose bag or which way, grammar books call the word a determiner. On its own, as in Which is yours?, it is a pronoun.

How many and how much

How has one more job: it asks about amount. Look at the noun to choose.

You cannot say one money or two moneys, so money takes how much, even for a very big amount: How much money do you need? (a number of pounds, but money itself is not counted).

Word order

After the question word, the helper verb comes before the person. The colour marks the verb that jumps.

• Where do you live? (not Where you live?)
• Who is that? (with be, the verb moves in the same way)

One case has no change: when who or what is the subject, the words stay in normal order.

• Who told you? (asking who did it: no did)
• What happened? (asking about the event: no did)

The helper do is the same one you use in present simple questions: Do you live here? Where do you live? (see do and does).

Inside a polite opener the order goes back to normal: Could you tell me where you live? That has its own page: indirect questions.

Hear the answer first

The fast way to choose: think of the answer you want, then pick the word.

The drills below work in that direction, from the answer back to the question, because that is how the choice works when you talk.

Common mistakes

What is he? is a real question, but it asks about his job, and it can sound old-fashioned or rude: today people ask What does he do? (He's a doctor.) To ask about the person, say Who is he? (He's my brother.)

What to do next

1. Ask yourself three questions and answer them: Where do you live? What is your name? How are you?
2. Do the drills below: the sort, then the word order.