Interrogative words are an extremely important topic in the English language. A huge number of sentences are made with the help of question words. At first glance, this topic does not seem complicated, but over time, questions arise. For example, very often students cannot immediately grasp the difference between whom and whose. This article will answer this and many other questions.
Interrogative pronouns
Difficulties can arise with a separate category of interrogative words: interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns include who, whom, what, which, and whose.
What is the difficulty? These pronouns are quite close in sound and meaning, so sometimes it is easy to confuse them. For those who have just started learning English, it will be useful to immediately learn the difference between these words.
Interrogative pronoun whom (whom)
Most often, many people forget the difference between whom and whose. Let's deal with each pronoun separately, starting with the first. First of all, this interrogative pronounused for persons, not objects. Most often, whom is translated into Russian as “whom”. For example:
Whom did you see there? - Who did you see there?
Whom did you ask about that problem? - Who did you ask about this problem?
In this case, this interrogative pronoun functions as a direct object. However, it can also act as an indirect object. In this case, whom can be used in combination with various prepositions that will fit the meaning. Examples:
To whom did you show that picture? - Who did you show this photo to?
With whom did you go to the cinema? - Who did you go to the movies with?
Interrogative pronoun whose (whose)
And to finally understand the difference between whom and whose, let's look at how whose is used. In Russian, whose is translated as "whose". Whose plays the role of a pronoun-adjective, always comes before the noun it defines.
It is worth noting that in this case the noun should not be preceded by the article, since this role is taken over by whose. Usage examples:
Whose letter is that? - Whose letter is this?
Whose book is that? - Whose book is this?
Now you can answer the difference between whom and whose:
- whom is used only in relation to persons, can be paired with prepositions, performs the function of a direct or indirect object;
- whose acts assubject pronoun, used together with nouns denoting objects, and replaces the article.
Interrogative pronoun who (who)
Now consider the difference between who and which. To begin with, we will deal with each word separately, starting with who. In a sentence, this word plays the role of either the subject or the nominal part of the predicate. It depends on what the question is asking.
Consider examples:
Who is that woman? - Who is that woman?
Who did that? - Who did this?
If who is the subject, then the verb following it is used only in the singular. If this interrogative pronoun acts as a nominal part of the predicate, then the verb agrees with the noun / pronoun that expresses the subject.
Interrogative pronoun which (which)
The subheading contains one of the translations of which, but this is not the only one. Also, this word can be translated as what, who and what. Everything will depend on the meaning of the sentence. Note that which can be used with both inanimate and animate nouns.
Firstly, which can be used as a definition of a noun. In this case, you do not need to use the article before the word being defined. Examples:
Which book did you like best? - Which book did you like the most?
Which of you speak German? - Which of you speak German?
And here you can see the case whenwhich can be confused with who. In the last example, which translates to "who". However, when it comes to choosing from among persons/objects, which is used. In the last sentence of the example, we are talking about choosing from a certain number of persons. Some of them presumably speak German. In this case, the pronoun which can be translated as "who".
Interrogative pronoun what (what)
It's pretty easy to grasp the difference between what and who in questions. The first word refers to objects, and the second to persons. What can play the role of the subject, direct object, nominal part of the predicate. This word can be translated in different ways, one of the translation options is what. But let's look at what in different functions:
What has happened? - What happened?
In this case, what takes the role of the subject and is translated as "what".
What are the results of your exam? - What are the results of your exam?
And here what plays the role of the nominal part of the predicate. The form of the verb in this case depends on the subject.
What have you bought? - What did you buy?
And this is how what is used as an addition.
What is the difference between who is it and who is he?
At first glance, these phrases look very simple. But only for the first. Let's start with who is he.
This phrase is used when you want to know someone's last name. Example:
-Who is he? – He is Ivanov.
If you need to ask about the profession, then the question will sound like this:
-What is he? – He is a doctor.
These phrases needremember and try not to confuse.
Who is it? can be translated as "Who is this?"
To avoid further difficulties when using interrogative pronouns, you should carefully study how they are used, with which parts of speech they are combined and with which they are not, and how they differ. It is also necessary to learn how to correctly ask a question about a profession and how it differs from a question about a surname.
