What Are Interrogative Pronouns?

Have you ever heard of interrogative pronouns? Well, if you’ve ever asked someone a question, then you’ve probably used an interrogative pronoun.

In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at each of the five interrogative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, and what. We’ll explain exactly how we use them, with examples.

What Is an Interrogative Pronoun?

Pronouns are words that help simplify language by standing in for a noun. They are often used to avoid the repetition of the noun in a sentence.

Interrogative pronouns are a type of pronoun used to ask questions (the word “interrogative” means questioning). They are often the first word in a sentence, but they can occur in other places, too.

• Who and whom are used to ask questions about people. (Though they can be used if we’re addressing animals. For example: “Who’s a good dog?”)
• Whose and which are used to ask questions about people, things, and concepts.
• What is only used to ask about things and concepts.

Interrogative pronouns can be used to ask direct and indirect questions. A direct question is often quite short, stands by itself, and ends with a question mark. For instance:

Who are your parents?

What is your name?

Which is your bag?

An indirect question sits within a statement or another question. It is generally a more polite expression and sounds less abrupt. If the question asked is implicit – which means that we can hear the question without it being explicitly there – the sentence doesn’t end with a question mark. For instance:

Please can you tell me who your parents are.

I wonder what his name is.

He asked me which route to take.

The very first word in the title of this post, what, is an example of an interrogative pronoun. It is being used to ask a direct question: What are interrogative pronouns?

Other Parts of Speech

As we know, English is a complicated language! Who, whom, whose, which, and what can also function as other parts of speech. Used as relative pronouns, they introduce relative clauses.

A relative clause adds information to a noun, and a relative pronoun introduces that extra information. For example:

I was chatting with a woman who lives across the road.

The basic part of the sentence above is:

I was chatting with a woman.

The extra information (the relative clause) is that she lives across the road.

As a relative pronoun, who introduces the extra detail but is not asking a question. So, in this case, who is not an interrogative pronoun.

How to Use Interrogative Pronouns

How to Use Who

Who is used to ask questions about people. It is used as the subject of the sentence (the thing doing the verb):

Who is the soccer team’s goalkeeper?

Who are the top three shooting guards of all time in basketball?

Who will win the game next week?

Notice how who in these examples stands in place of a subject noun, so it still agrees with its verb.

Because the soccer team question is about a singular goalkeeper, the verb also takes the singular form is. But in the basketball example, the question asks about three shooting guards, so the verb takes the plural form are.

How to Use Whom

Whom is also only used to ask about people, but it is used in place of the object of the sentence (the thing having the verb done to it). The use of whom is more common in formal writing than in everyday usage:

Whom did you ask to your party? (formal)

To whom did you send invitations? (very formal)

In everyday usage, we’d tend to say:

Who did you ask to your party?

Who did you send invitations to?

However, it’s important to know how to use whom in case you need it in a formal context.

How to Use Whose

First, let’s make sure we’re not confusing two different words that just sound the same (i.e., homophones).

• “Whose” is an interrogative pronoun asking about ownership or relationship.
• “Who’s” is a contraction, giving the shortened form of who has or who is.

Here, we’re looking at the interrogative pronoun whose. For example:

Whose is this amazing sports car?

Whose are those books?

Whose is that child making so much noise?

Whose is asking who the amazing sports car and the books belong to; it’s asking about the relationship of the child to someone else.

Take care, as we did with who, to make sure the interrogative pronoun and the verb agree. For example:

• Sports car is singular, so we use is.
• Books is plural, so we use are.
• Child is singular, so we use is.

How to Use Which

Which has a very specific use. We use it to ask questions that involve a choice of answers. The answers to questions using which can be people, things, or concepts. For example:

Which is your favorite paint color: pink, yellow, or blue?

Which movie shall we watch tonight?

We can go bowling or for a walk in the park. Which sounds more fun?

How to Use What

What asks questions where the answer is a thing or a concept. For instance:

What is greatness?

What shall I do about my hair?

What is your best friend’s hometown?

Each of these examples is a question about either a concept (greatness) or a thing (hair, hometown).

Longer Forms of Interrogative Pronouns

Whoever, whomever, whosever, whichever, and whatever are less commonly used (and whosoever is very rarely used). When we do see or hear them, they tend to be giving emphasis or expressing surprise (or, in the case of a teenager using whatever, great derision toward their parents!).

Here are some examples of their use:

Whoever made all this mess?!

Whomever will he find to marry willing to live with his horrible mother?!

Whosever is that dreadfully smelly dog?!

Whichever will you choose? You have so many dresses in your closet!

Whatever are you waiting for? Just get on with it!

Becoming a Proofreader and Editor

If reading this post has sparked your interest in grammar and the correct use of words, you’d likely enjoy working as a proofreader and editor. Here are some questions you might be thinking about:

Who should you ask about a great course?

What can a great proofreading course lead to?

What will a great editing course cover?

Which is the best way to find out?

See what we did there?

Knowadays offers a range of great courses, and our Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor courses will answer all your questions. We offer a 15% discount if you’d like to take both courses, and you can even sign up for some free lessons!