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Using who, whom, whose, which and what in questions.
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions about people, things, choices and possession.
The main interrogative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which and what.
Who asks about people and normally functions as the subject or object of a question.
Examples include Who called? and Who did you meet?
Whom asks about people when functioning as the object.
Whom is mainly used in formal English and is often replaced by who in everyday speech.
Whose asks about possession or relationships.
Examples include Whose is this? and Whose jacket are you wearing?
What asks about things, actions, ideas, occupations and descriptions.
Its exact meaning depends on the context.
Which asks the listener to choose from a limited or known set of options.
Compare Which book do you want? with What book are you reading?
Interrogative pronouns may function as either the subject or the object of a question.
Subject questions do not normally require do-support, while object questions often do.
Prepositions may appear before or after interrogative pronouns.
Compare To whom did you speak? with Who did you speak to?
Interrogative pronouns also introduce indirect questions.
Examples include I wonder who called and Tell me what happened.
Formal English favors whom and preposition-fronting, while informal English usually prefers who and stranded prepositions.
Modern spoken English generally avoids whom except in fixed or formal expressions.
What appears in many idiomatic and exclamatory expressions.
Examples include What for?, What if...?, Guess what! and What a surprise!
Choose the interrogative pronoun according to meaning and grammatical function.
Common mistakes include confusing what and which, using whom incorrectly and applying question word order to indirect questions.