Interrogative Pronouns for beginners

interrogative pronouns interrogatives what which who whom whose

There are five interrogative pronouns in English. Each is used to ask a specific question. In this lesson, we will learn more about these pronouns.

intermediate advanced

"Interrogative Pronouns" in English Grammar

What Are Interrogative Pronouns?

Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that are used to ask questions.

English Interrogative Pronouns

The main interrogative pronouns in English are:

Interrogative Pronouns	Example
Who	Who are you?
What	What is that?
Which	Which is the most beautiful?

Who

'Who' is an interrogative pronoun that is used to ask for the names of people. It is commonly used to ask about the subject of the verb in a sentence..

'Who is he?' 'He is Sam.'

'Who ate the last slice of the cake?' 'Angela.'

What

'What' is an interrogative pronoun that is used to ask for the names of things. We can use 'what' to ask questions about the subject of the verb.

'What happened?' 'Nothing happened.'

Tip!

Both 'who' and 'what' can be used to ask questions about either subject or object of a sentence, but when we want to ask questions about objects, we need to to change the places of auxiliary and subject.

'What is your name?' 'My name is Alice.'

'Who is your friend?' 'My friend is Tom.'

What as a Determiner

'What' as a determiner is always used before a noun and is used to ask for specific information about the noun.

What color is that hat?

What car do you have?

Which as a Determiner

'Which' as a determiner is always used before a noun and asks about a limited number of choices. Here are some examples:

Which car is yours?

Which scarf is nicer?

Demonstrative Pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun mostly used to point to something based on its distance from the speaker. In English, these pronouns have four forms.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns are used to show that the subject and object of a sentence are exactly the same person or thing or there is a direct connection between them.

Emphatic Pronouns

'Emphatic pronouns' are used to refer to a noun or a pronoun mentioned earlier. So they give more detailed information.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns show ownership and indicate that something belongs to someone particular. With their help, we can make a possessive phrase shorter.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things without saying exactly who or what they are. In this lesson, we will learn more about these pronouns.

Dummy Pronouns

Dummy pronouns function grammatically the same as other pronouns, except they do not refer to a person or thing like normal pronouns do.

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