Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns :


The interrogative pronouns are WHO, WHICH and WHAT. They are used in asking questions.

1. Who is your neighbor?
2. Who goes there?
3. Whom have you chosen?
4. From whom did you learn this?
5. Whose voice is that?
6. Which shall I take?
7. Which is correct?
8. What did he say?
9. What is lacking?
10. With what are you so delighted?



WHO has a possessive whose and an objective whom.

WHICH and WHAT are not inflected.

WHO may be either masculine or feminine.

WHICH and WHAT may be of any gender.



The objective WHOM often begins a question. Care should be taken not to write who for whom.



WHICH and WHAT are used as interrogative adjectives.

1. Which street shall I take?

2. What village is this?



The interrogative adjective what may be used in a peculiar form of exclamatory sentence. Thus….

1. What a cold night this is!

2. What courage he must have had! WHAT! by itself often serves as an exclamation such as…..What! do you really think so?

In this use WHAT may be regarded as an interjection.



In parsing pronouns the following models may be used.

1. He was my earliest friend.

He is a personal pronoun of the third person. It is in the masculine gender, the singular number and the nominative case, being the subject of the verb was.


2. A policeman whom I met showed me the house.

Whom is a relative pronoun of the masculine gender, singular number, and third person, agreeing with its antecedent, policeman. It is in the objective case, being the direct object of the transitive verb met.


3. The corporal, whose name was Scott, came from Leith.

Whose is a relative pronoun of the masculine gender, singular number, and third person, agreeing with its antecedent, corporal. It is in the possessive case, modifying the noun name.


4. Whose birthday do we celebrate in February?

Whose is an interrogative pronoun in the masculine or feminine gender, singular number, and possessive case, modifying the noun birthday.


5. He injured himself severely.

Himself is a compound personal pronoun of the third person, used reflexively. It is of the masculine gender, singular number, and third person, agreeing with its antecedent, he. It is in the objective case, being the direct object of the transitive verb injured.

Interrogative Pronouns :

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