WH-Question Words

Wh questions (Question Words)

Types of questions

There are two types of questions:

Yes or no questions

Wh questions

Question words

Question words are also called wh questions because they include the letters 'W' and 'H'.

Question words	Meaning	Examples
who	person	Who's that? That's Nancy.
where	place	Where do you live? In Boston
why	reason	Why do you sleep early? Because I've got to get up early
when	time	When do you go to work? At 7:00
how	manner	How do you go? By car
what	object, idea or action	What do you do? I am an engineer
which	choice	Which one do you prefer? The red one.
whose	possession	Whose is this book? It's Alan's.
whom	object of the verb	Whom did you meet? I met the manager.
what kind	description	What kind of music do you like? I like quiet songs
what time	time	What time did you come home?
how many	quantity (countable)	How many students are there? There are twenty.
how much	amount, price (uncountable)	How much time have we got? Ten minutes
how long	duration, length	How long did you stay in that hotel? For two weeks.
how often	frequency	How often do you go to the gym? Twice a week.
how far	distance	How far is your school? It's one mile far.
how old	age	How old are you? I'm 16.
how come	reason	How come I didn't see you at the party?

Asking questions

1.If you ask about the subject of the sentence, simply add the question word at the beginning:
Example:
James writes good poems. — Who writes good poems?
2.If you ask about the predicate of the sentence (the part of a sentence which contains the verb and gives information about the subject), there are three options:

If there is a helping (auxiliary) verb that precedes the main verb ( for example: can, is, are, was, were, will, would...), add the question word and invert the subject and the helping (auxiliary) verb.
Examples:
He can speak Chinese. — What can he speak?
They are leaving tonight. — When are they leaving?
If you ask about the predicate and there is no helping (auxiliary) verb and the verb is "to be", simply add the question word and invert the subject and the verb.
Example:
The play was interesting. — How was the play?
If there is no helping (auxiliary) verb in the the predicate and the main verb is not "to be", add the auxiliary "do" in the appropriate form.
Examples:
They go to the movies every Saturday. — Where do they go every Saturday?
He wakes up early. — When does he wake up?
They sent a letter. — What did they send?

We usually form wh-questions with wh- + an auxiliary verb (be, do or have) + subject + main verb or with wh- + a modal verb + subject + main verb:

Be: When are* you leaving?*	Who’s been* paying the bills?*
Do: Where do they live?	Why didn’t you call me?
Have: What has* she done now?*	What have* they decided?*
Modal: Who would* she stay with?*	Where should* I park?*

Warning:

When what, who, which or whose is the subject or part of the subject, we do not use the auxiliary. We use the word order subject + verb:

What fell off the wall? Which horse won?

Who bought this? Whose phone rang?

Compare

Who owns this bag?	Who is the subject of the sentence and this bag is the object. We use no auxiliary verb.
Who do you love most?	Who is the object of the sentence and you is the subject. We use the auxiliary verb do.

Wh-questions ask for information and we do not expect a yes-no answer to a wh-question. We expect an answer which gives information:

A:

Where’s the coffee machine? (We expect an answer about the location of the coffee machine.)

B:

It’s in the room next to the reception.

A:

How old is your dog? (We expect an answer about the age of the dog.)

B:

She’s about five. I’m not very sure.

We can add emphasis to wh-questions in speaking by stressing the auxiliary verb do. We usually do this when we have not already received the information that we expected from an earlier question, or to show strong interest.

When the wh-word is the object of the sentence, the do auxiliary is stressed to make it more emphatic:

A:

How was your weekend in Edinburgh?

B:

I didn’t go to Edinburgh.

A:

Really. Where did you go?

B:

We decided to go to Glasgow instead.

When the wh-word is the subject of the sentence, we can add the auxiliary do to make it emphatic. We stress do:

A:

Ronald Price lives in that house, doesn’t he?

B:

No. He moved out.

A:

So who does live there? (non-emphatic question: So who lives there?)

B:

Actually, his son is living there now.

When we ask negative wh-questions, we use the auxiliary verb do when there is no other auxiliary or modal verb, even when the wh-word is the subject of the clause:

Affirmative with no auxiliary	Negative with auxiliary do
Who wants an ice cream?	Who doesn’t want an ice cream?
Which door opened?	Which door didn’t open?

Spoken English:

In speaking, we can sometimes turn wh-questions into statement questions:

What’s today’s date? or Today’s date is what?

We do this especially when we are checking information that we have already been given or when we want to quickly check a particular detail. These are less formal than full wh-questions:

A:

So we’re all going to be there at eight?

B:

Right, I’m travelling with Larry.

A:

You’re travelling with who? (more formal: Who are you travelling with?)

B:

With Larry. We’re actually going on our bikes.

A:

Is your sister here too or just your mother?

B:

Just my mother.

A:

And she’s here until when? (more formal: And when is she here until? or even more formal: Until when is she here

The intonation of wh-questions is normally falling. The falling intonation is on the most important syllable:

Where are the keys to the back do↘or?

Why are the lights re↘d?

When we ask wh-questions to check or clarify information that has already been given, we may use rising or fall-rising intonation:

Wh↗at did you say the time was? (I know you’ve told me before but I’ve forgotten.)

Wh↘o p↗aid for the meal?

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