Interrogative pronouns
المؤلف:
EVELYNP.ALTENBERG & ROBERTM.VAGO
المصدر:
English Grammar Understanding the basics
الجزء والصفحة:
P93-C4
2025-11-07
24
Interrogative pronouns
What do you notice about the underlined words in the following sentences?
1. Who went first?
2. What was the man carrying?
3. Which did you buy?
You undoubtedly recognize them as question words. They are called interrogative pronouns; we list them in the following Quick tip.
Quick tip
Interrogative pronouns are question words. The interrogative pronouns are: how, what, when, where, which, who, whom, whose, why. Look for the question mark to help find them.
You may be wondering why these are considered to be pronouns. Like other pronouns, interrogative pronouns represent something else, often a noun. They represent missing information; information that’s in the answer to a question:
4a. Who went first?
4b. Harry went first.
5a. What was the man carrying?
5b. The man was carrying a camera.
6a. Which did you buy?
6b. I bought the red car.
Since, when we ask a question, we don’t yet know what the answer will be, we have no choice but to use a question word, or interrogative pronoun, to represent the information we are asking about.
To enhance your understanding
Don’t confuse the following– they sound the same:
7a. Who’s (= who is) there?
7b. Whose party are we going to?
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To further enhance your understanding
As we discussed at the beginning, interrogatives function as pronouns – they replace nouns. Note, however, that some interrogatives can also function as determiners - they can precede a noun. You can see this in the examples below:
8. Which book did you read last?
9. Whose purse is on the table?
10. What name did they choose for their baby?
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