German Question Words: wer, was, wo, wann, warum and wie

Six short words, one word-order rule, and you can ask who someone is, where the station is, when the train leaves and why it has not. German question words are among the most useful things a beginner can learn and among the cheapest, because the grammar that comes with them is a rule you already need everywhere else: the verb goes second.

Germans call them W-Fragen, W-questions, because they all begin with w, in the same way that most English ones begin with wh. That family resemblance is real, since they are the same words inherited from the same ancestor, and it is also the source of the one trap that catches nearly everyone.

The German question words chart

Learn the first six as a set before anything else. They carry most of the questions a beginner actually asks, and the other four are built on top of them.

wer is who, wo is where

This is the trap, and it is worth a section of its own because it survives long after learners know better.

wer sounds almost exactly like English where. It means who. wo means where. And was, which looks like the past tense of to be, means what. Two of the six core words look or sound like English words with a different meaning, and your ear will pick the English one every time it is tired:

Wer ist das? - Who is that?

Wo ist das? - Where is that?

Was ist das? - What is that?

There is no trick to this beyond repetition. Say the three sentences above until wer stops sounding like a place.

A smaller trap sits next door: wann is the question when (at what time?), and wenn is a different word, the conjunction when or if that joins two clauses. Wann kommst du? asks for a time. wenn never starts a question.

The word order: question word, verb, subject

English builds most questions with a helper verb: where do you live, what are you doing. German does not have one. It takes the ordinary verb and puts it straight after the question word, and the subject comes next:

This is the same verb-second rule that governs every German main clause, explained in German word order: one element first, the conjugated verb second. In a question the question word is simply the thing in first place. If there is a second verb, it goes to the end as usual:

Was willst du machen? - What do you want to do?

Wann kannst du kommen? - When can you come?

A yes or no question has no question word, so the verb moves into first place instead:

Kommst du? - Are you coming?

Hast du Zeit? - Have you got time?

That is the whole of German question grammar. There is no do, no inversion rule with exceptions, no difference between questions with be and questions without. The verb goes second after a question word and first without one.

wer has cases

wer is a pronoun, and German pronouns change with their job in the sentence. It declines like the masculine der, which is why the forms will look familiar if you have read German articles:

English kept two relics of this, whom and whose, and has spent the last century letting whom die. German still uses all of it, and the dative is the one you will need most, because prepositions like mit and von demand it:

Mit wem sprichst du? - Who are you talking to?

Von wem ist das? - Who is that from?

Note that the preposition comes first. German does not leave it dangling at the end of the question the way English does.

was barely changes at all, which is a mercy. But when a preposition would go with was, German fuses the two into one word, wo plus the preposition: worüber (about what), wovon (of what), worauf (for what, on what), wofür (what for). An r is added if the preposition starts with a vowel.

Worüber sprichst du? - What are you talking about?

Worauf wartest du? - What are you waiting for?

The split is people against things. A person takes mit wem; a thing takes womit. Once you have seen it, it is tidy.

Where, where from, where to

English asks where and then adds from or to at the end. German builds the direction into the question word itself:

Wo wohnst du? - Where do you live? (position)

Woher kommst du? - Where are you from? (origin)

Wohin gehst du? - Where are you going? (destination)

Using wo for a destination is one of the commonest beginner mistakes. Wo gehst du? is understood and sounds wrong, because wo only ever asks about a position, never a movement.

In speech Germans often split the word in two, leaving the her or hin at the end of the sentence. Wo kommst du her? and Wo gehst du hin? mean exactly the same as the one-word versions and sound more relaxed. You will hear the split versions constantly; the one-word forms are what you should produce until you have an ear for when each fits.

welcher and the wie family

welcher means which, and it declines exactly like der, taking the gender and case of the noun it asks about:

Welcher Tag ist heute? - What day is it today?

Welchen Film siehst du? - Which film are you watching?

In welcher Stadt wohnst du? - Which city do you live in?

wie does more work than any other question word, because it combines with adjectives to ask how much of something:

And the most useful sentence in the whole article: Wie heißt du? is how Germans ask your name, literally how are you called. Was ist dein Name? is grammatical and sounds like a form being filled in.

Why: warum, wieso, and the answer with weil

warum is the standard why. wieso means the same and is a touch more casual; you will hear both in the same conversation. The answer usually starts with weil, because, and weil sends its verb to the end:

Warum bist du hier? Weil ich dich sehen will. - Why are you here? Because I want to see you.

That end-placed verb is the subject of German subordinate clauses, and it comes up again the moment a question is tucked inside a longer sentence:

Ich weiß nicht, wo er wohnt. - I don't know where he lives.

Once the question word is no longer starting a question but joining two clauses, the verb stops being second and goes last. Wo wohnt er? becomes wo er wohnt. English does something similar, dropping the do: where does he live becomes where he lives.

Mistakes English speakers make

1. wer for where. The classic. wer is who.
2. Adding a helper verb. Was tust du machen? is an attempt at what do you do, and German does not do it. The main verb goes second: Was machst du?
3. Subject before the verb. Wo du wohnst? is English order. After the question word the verb comes first, then the subject.
4. wo for movement. Wo gehst du? should be Wohin gehst du?
5. wie viel with countable plurals. Wie viel Geld, but wie viele Kinder. The -e appears when you can count the things one by one, exactly as English switches from how much to how many.
6. wann and wenn. Only wann asks a question.
7. Leaving the preposition at the end. Wem sprichst du mit? copies English. The preposition leads: Mit wem sprichst du?

What to do next

Learn the six core words first, in one sitting, with an example sentence each, and drill wer against wo until the reflex flips. Then add woher and wohin, and Wie heißt du?, and you can manage a first conversation.

The rule doing the real work here is verb-second, and it runs through every German sentence, not just questions: German word order covers the rest of it. The declined wer is the case system in miniature, so German cases is worth a look if wen and wem felt slippery. And when you want to practise asking rather than reading, the German course builds the questions from words you already know.