Interrogative Pronouns We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions.

The interrogative pronoun represents the thing that we don't know (what we are asking the question about). There are four main interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what, which Notice that the possessive pronoun whose can also be an interrogative pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun). subject object

person

who

whom

thing

what

person/thing

which

person

whose

(possessive)

Notice that whom is the correct form when the pronoun is the object of the verb, as in "Whom did you see?" ("I saw John.") However, in normal, spoken English we rarely usewhom. Most native speakers would say (or even write): "Who did you see?" Look at these example questions. In the sample answers, the noun phrase that the interrogative pronoun represents is shown in bold. question answer

Who told you?

John told me.

subject

Whom did you tell?

I told Mary.

object

What's happened?

An accident's happened.

subject

What do you want?

I want coffee.

object

Which came first?

The Porsche 911 came first.

subject

Which will the doctor see first?

The doctor will see the patient in bluefirst.

object

There's one car missing. Whose hasn't arrived?

John's (car) hasn't arrived.

subject

We've found everyone's keys. Whose did you find?

I found John's (keys).

object

Note that we sometimes use the suffix "-ever" to make compounds from some of these pronouns (mainly whoever, whatever, whichever). When we add "-ever", we use it for emphasis, often to show confusion or surprise. Look at these examples:

Whoever would want to do such a nasty thing? Whatever did he say to make her cry like that? They're all fantastic! Whichever will you choose?

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUN

Definition: An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun used in order to ask a question. Some of them refer only to people, like "who" and others refer to people and objects, etc like "what". They do not distinguish between singular and plural, so they only have one form. Interrogative pronouns produce information questions that require more than a "yes" or "no" answer. For example:

? Interrogative pronouns are: What, Which, Who, Whose, Whom. In addition, these pronouns may take the suffixes ever and -soever. Forms: As we can see in the next table, these pronouns could act as a subject, object or possessive in a sentence. Subject who which that WHAT can be used to ask about objects or people. For example:

Object whom

Possessive whose

What time is it? What is your name? What do you want?

WHICH can be used to ask about objects or people. For example:

Which chair are you talking about? Which jumper do you like? Which is your mother?

WHO can be used to ask about people

For example:

Who are you? Which is your mother? Who has been sitting in my chair?

WHOSE can be used to ask about a possession relation. For example:

Whose is this book? Whose car did you drive here?

WHOM can be used to ask about people.It is less usual and more formal than "who" For example:

Whom did you phone? For whom will you vote?

NOTE: Either "which" or "what" can also be used as an interrogative adjective, and that "who," "whom," or "which" can also be used as a relative pronoun. For example:

The man whom she chose will do a wonderful job.

Examples

Who is in charge? Which wants to see the dentist first? Who wrote the novel Rockbound? Whom do you think we should invite? What did she say?