interrogative pronouns

Meaning

1. 1nounpluraltechnical

   Words such as who, whom, whose, what and which that stand in for the thing or person being asked about in a question.

   Grammar: Plural of interrogative pronoun: who and what are interrogative pronouns.

   Patterns

   • interrogative pronouns such as who and what

   Who, whom, whose, what and which are the main interrogative pronouns in English.

   In the sentence Who called you, who is one of the interrogative pronouns.

   Learners often practice interrogative pronouns by asking questions about a picture.

Word forms

Common combinations

use interrogative pronouns

We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions.

list of interrogative pronouns

The textbook has a list of interrogative pronouns.

learn interrogative pronouns

Children learn interrogative pronouns early.

common interrogative pronouns

Who and what are common interrogative pronouns.

interrogative pronouns and adverbs

The lesson compared interrogative pronouns and adverbs.

Synonyms and how they differ

question words

Question words is the informal name for the group and also includes adverbs like when and where, while interrogative pronouns names only the pronoun type.

wh-words

Wh-words is a handy label that includes how, though how does not start with wh.

relative pronouns

Relative pronouns look the same, but they join clauses rather than ask questions.

Word family

interrogative adjective

having the form of a question

interrogate verb

to question closely

interrogation noun

close questioning

pronoun noun

a word that replaces a noun

Commonly confused: interrogative pronouns or relative pronouns?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “interrogative pronouns”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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