Education, Languages
All question words in English and their combinations
The need for question words in any language is beyond doubt. And how else to ask and learn about specific places, subjects and people, time and direction? From this article you will learn all about special words in English questions. Most of them start with the letter wh, but there are other options.
Types of questions
In total in English there are 5 types of interrogative sentences: alternative, dividing, general, questions to the subject and special. Just in the last two types special words are used, which became the topic of this article.
Interrogative words in English are always placed at the beginning of the sentence. Then follows the verb: semantic (if it is a question to the subject) or auxiliary (when asking a special question). For example:
What makes you happy? - What makes you happy? (This is a question to the subject).
What have you seen? "What did you see?" (A special question).
In the above sentences the question word is what. Next, you will see a list of the rest of the group.
Interrogative words of English
The table below contains all the special words at the beginning of the questions.
Interrogative word | Transcription | Transfer | Example in the sentence |
Who? | [Huː] | Who? | Who are you? Who are you? |
Whom? | [Huːm] | To whom? Whom? | Whom does she call? Who does she call? |
Which? | [Huːz] | whose? | Whose is that car? Whose car is this? |
What? | [Wɔt] | what? | What did he buy? What did he buy? |
Which? | [Wɪʧ] | which the? | Which house is ours? Which of our houses? |
Where? | [Wɛə] | Where? where? | Where do you live? Where do you live? |
When? | [Wen] | when? | When does the shop open? When does the store open? |
Why? | [Waɪ] | why? | Why is it so cold? Why is it so cold? |
How? | [Hau] | as? | How do they work? How do they work? |
As you can see from the table, interrogative words in English almost all begin with the letter wh (although it is read in different words in different ways).
Also it is necessary to say that the question word of whom at the moment is almost not used and is replaced by who:
Who does she call?
Now consider combinations of words that also have interrogative meaning and are put at the beginning of sentences.
Combinations
Sometimes interrogative words in English are combined with other words and form interrogative phrases.
What kind of? "What kind?"
What kind of music do you like? What kind of music do you like?
What kind of person is she? What kind of person is she? What is her character?
Most often, such combinations can be found with the word how (as).
- How many? - How much? (For countable nouns).
How many people live there? - How many people live there?
- How much? - How much? (For uncountable nouns).
How much does it cost? - How much does it cost?
- How long? "How long?"
How long do you know him? "How long have you known him?"
- How long ago? "How long?"
How long ago did she leave? -How long has she left?
- How often? How often?
How often do you meet? - How often do you meet?
- How old? - How much?
How old is he? "How old is he?"
Cliche
Quite often, interrogative words in English can be found in phrases with a stable structure and meaning. These cliches can not always be translated and understood literally, so you just need to know them so that when you meet them in a foreign speech or in the text, do not get lost.
What is going on? / What is happening? "What's going on?"
What is the point of ...? - Does it make sense in ...?
What is taking so long? - Why so long?
What took you so long? - Why you (you) for so long?
What are you? - What is your (your) profession?
What's up? - How are you?
How are you doing? - How are you?
How can you tell ...? - How do you (you) know (-e) that ...?
Place in the offer
In a special question, the question word (or phrase) is put first, followed by an auxiliary verb, followed by the subject, then the predicate, followed by the secondary members of the sentence.
Why do you stay here?
Asking the question to the subject, it is necessary to put the question word first, then the predicate (the semantic verb), then the subject also the remaining members of the sentence.
Who lives here?
The answer to the question to the subject will be an almost identical sentence, only without a question mark at the end and with a noun (pronoun) at the place of the interrogative word: Jack (he) lives here.
How to learn?
Interrogative words are difficult for English speakers. Exercises will help you to remember them gradually. You can start with simple tasks, where the question words from the existing list are substituted into the sentences for the place of passes. Then you need to gradually complicate the work: omissions with an independent selection of options, answers to questions, drawing up dialogs, performing audio tasks and much more.
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