Question words
Question words are used to ask for specific information. They are some of the most important words in the language. Here are the main question words, what they ask about, and some simple examples:
| question word | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
| what | a thing (many possible answers) | "What's your favorite dish?" |
| what (thing) | a specific thing | "What time is it?", "What kind of dog do you have?" |
| which | a thing (a small number of possible answers) | "Which one is your car, the grey or the blue one?" |
| who | a person | "Who's the richest man in the world?" |
| whose | a person something belongs to | "Whose jacket is this?" |
| where | a place | "Where is the bathroom?" |
| when | a time | "When did the show start?" |
| why | a reason | "Why do birds fly together?" |
| how | a way of doing something | "How did the magician make the woman disappear?" |
| how long | duration or length | "How long is that book?" |
| how many / how much | a number or quantity | "How many people can fit in that car?", "How much water should you drink per day?" |
| how often | frequency | "How often do you check your phone?" |
| how old | age | "How old are you?" |
Question formation
We normally use an auxiliary (do, be, can, etc.) to make questions. Question words are used to ask for specific information, otherwise they become yes/no questions (see below).
| (question word) | auxiliary | subject | verb | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | Where | do | you | go | on Sundays? |
| Past Simple | Where | did | he | say | he was from? |
| Present Continuous | What book | is | she | reading? | |
| Can | How | can | you | learn | Japanese quickly? |
| Will | Will | you | teach | me how to surf? | |
| Past Continuous | What | were | you | doing | when I called you? |
| Present Perfect Continuous | How long | have | you | been standing | there? |
Yes/no questions and short answers
To a question like "Is it raining?" or "Do you like roses?", we can only answer in the positive or negative. We can fully restate the question, which is called a long answer:
Yes, it's raining.
Yes, I like roses.
More commonly we give a short answer, which uses the auxiliary verb of the question but NOT the main verb.
Yes, it is.
Yes, I do.
In informal speech, yes/no questions will often reject the the conventional word order for questions, using only the intonation to signal that they are questions.
You like Chinese food. (affirmation)
While the English language is very flexible in this regard, learners (and teachers!) are encouraged to not develop bad habits by relying only on intonation.
Subject questions
Subject questions ask about the subject of a sentence. If we look at the example:
Who wrote 'Hamlet'?
We see that there's a verb wrote, an object, 'Hamlet', and a subject that is referred to by the question word who.
The full answer to that question is, of course:
Shakespeare wrote 'Hamlet'.
What makes subject questions different from other kinds of questions is that the word order of the question is the same as that of a positive sentence.
Who lives in Germany?
Gregory lives in Germany.
Who likes icecream the most?
Mary likes icecream the most.
Who was the first man to step on moon?
Louis Armstrong was the first man to step on the moon
Subject questions can be asked not just with who, but other question words, such as what, which and whose:
What caused the accident?
A short-circuit caused the accident.
Which car is the fastest?
The Ferrari is the fastest.
Whose car is the fastest?
Mark's (car) is the fastest.
'who' and 'whose'
Whose asks "who does this belong to?". We have just looked at its usage in subject questions:
Whose car is the fastest?
Mark's (car) is the fastest.
Instead of asking "Who has the fastest car?", in which 'car' is an object owned by someone, we make this particular car the subject of the sentence. In the answer, when saying 'Mark's car', 'car' becomes optional since 'Mark's', by itself, already means the car and not Mark. We can even turn it into a short answer:
Whose car is the fastest?
Mark's.
More examples should help make the concept clear:
Whose house has a pool?
Claire's.
Whose dog is barking?
My neighbor's.
Whose speech was the best?
The president's.
Whose pencil did you borrow?
My classmate's.