A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978
Chapter 7 - The question words
Sound symbols
We have already seen how to make questions by inverting the subject and the auxiliary verb, or by using do.
Is that man your father?
Do you live in New York?
Have they found your lost wallet?
The answers to these questions are “yes” or “no.”
Tо ask a question with a view to getting other information, question words are used.
Where may mean at what place? or to what place? and occasionally what place?
Where did he live?
Where was he?
Where did he go?
How may mean in what condition? or in what manner?
How is the weather?
How do they make those baskets?
Adverbial question words with BE. The adverbial question words may be used with be. When, where, and how occur in the pattern; question word +be + subject.
When is the dance?
Where is the restaurant?
How is your wife?
Why occurs in the pattern why + be + subject + complement.
Why is John angry?
Why is Mary upstairs?
Why is that man a criminal?
How can be used with adjectives to mean to what degree? In this case, both how and the word it modifies come before the auxiliary.
How hot is the water?
How wide was the road?
Adverbial question words with ordinary verbs. This is the usual word order: question word + auxiliary -|- subject + verb + complement.
When did he leave?
Where are you going?
Why did you say that?
How do you spell this word?
Why also occurs in the special pattern why + base form. In this case the implied subject of the verb is suggested by the context.
Why ask me? (= Why do you ask me? or Why do they ask me?, etc.)
Why worry?
How is used with adverbs to mean to what degree?
How often does the clock strike?
How long did your friends stay?
Who, whom, and whose ask questions about persons. Who is used when the question word is the subject of the verb. It is always treated as a singular, even though the context may clearly indicate that more than one person is meant.
Who’s coming to your party? (I know that you are having a number of guests.)
Who knows the answer to this question? (Several students, probably.)
If the question word is the object of the verb, two styles are followed: in formal, “correct” language, whom is used; in informal language, who is used.
Whom do you want to see? (Formal)
Who do you want to see? (Informal)
If the question word is the object of a preposition, three patterns are available:
Formal:
preposition +whom + question
To whom did you write?
Rather formal:
whom + question + preposition
Whom did you write to?
Informal:
who + question +preposition
Who did you write to?
In casual speech, a special kind of question consisting of who + preposition is often used.
I went to the movies yesterday.
Who with? (= Who did you go with?)
Tom was writing a letter when I saw him.
Who to? (= Who was he writing to?)
What asks about things and has only one form, regardless of its function.
What caused the explosion? (subject)
What do you want? (object of verb)
What do you carry water in? (object of preposition)
What is not often used after prepositions at the beginning of questions except in the most formal style.
To what do you attribute his lack of success?
What is used in the pattern what + preposition in short questions;
Jack just cut the grass in the front yard.
What with? I though the mower was broken.
Let me have five dollars, will you?
What for?
Questions with BE. When who and what are used in questions with be, they are usually the complement of be, not its subject. The noun or pronoun that follows be, therefore, determines which form of be is used.
Who is that man? (answer: That man is ...)
What is argon? (answer: Argon is ...)
Who is used if the identity of persons is being asked, and what asks about things. What is used with reference to people if it is their profession, status, or role that is being asked about.
Who am I? What is that?
Who are you? What are those things?
Who is your father? Dave’s a mechanic; what is Tom?
Who are these people?
Question words as noun determiners. What, which, and whose are used as noun determiners. That is, nouns may follow them. These nouns may be either singular or plural. What and which ask the answerer to select from the class of things named by the noun; whose asks about possession. Which and whose may stand alone as substitute nouns in a context where a noun has already been introduced. Which may be followed by one, but does not have to be. Whose is never followed by one.
When these words, along with their nouns, are used in questions, both they and their nouns come first in the question, regardless of their function in the sentence. Prepositions may precede them in formal
style; in informal style, the preposition is usually put at the encl of the question, as we have seen.
What book pleases you most?
What book do you like best?
What officer did you meet?
What man told you that?
What teachers did you speak to?
What time is it?
Which bus goes to the museum?
Which goes to the museum?
Which one goes to the museum?
Which bus did you take?
Whose car was in the accident?
Whose was in the accident?
Whose house did you visit?
Whose did you visit?
Whose parents did you write to?
To whose parents did you write? (formal)