INTERROGRATIVE 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:
What is her phone number?
What do you want?
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 |
Object |
Possessive |
| who |
whom |
whose |
| which |
|
|
| that |
|
|
WHAT can be used to ask about objects or people.
For example:
- 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?
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