...More on Interrogative Sentences

QUESTIONS ASKED BY USING INTERROGATIVE WORDS - -

Many interrogative sentences ask questions by means of interrogative words.

These words are of three tvpes:

(1) interrogative pronouns, (2) interrogative adjectives, and (3) interrogative adverbs.

We shall examine sentences introduced by each of these types.

Sentences Introduced by Interrogative Pronouns

An interrogative pronoun is one which is used to ask a question.

The interrogative pronouns are the following:

who (whom), which, and what.

Who has the objective case form whom;

which and what do not change in form in the objective case. [ What is case? ]

 Nominative: who   which   what

Objective: whom   which   what

Copy the examples - -

Examples:

Who told you? (Subject)

Whom did he invite? (Object)

Which is correct? (Subject)

Which do you want? (Object)

What hit him? (Subject)

What did you say? (Object)


Note: Since both who and whom come at the beginning of an interrogative sentence, some students
           have difficulty in determining which form of the pronoun is proper in a given sentence. One way to test a sentence is to change it from interrogative to declarative and substitute

                        He/him,   she/her,     or    they/them       for the interrogative pronoun.

Let us suppose, for example, that you are in doubt about whether to use
Who or whom in the following sentence:

 Who/Whom did you see?

    This would be changed to read:
    You did see he/him.

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