Overview
Unlike Polar Questions and Indirect Questions, ‘WH’ Questions cannot be used for requests; they are only used as inquiries (seeking information). But while many other question forms have a narrow scope of expected answers, ‘WH’ Questions hold few limitations on their answers, allowing for a wide range of possibilities and granting the replier more agency. For this reason, ‘WH’ Questions can also be called Open Questions.
Suppose you want to say a declarative sentence, but you’re missing certain information needed to complete it. For instance:
- _____ is your favorite wrestler.
- Soledad went to _____ on Thursday.
- I have to _____ by myself.
To ask someone you expect would know the information to fill these gaps, you replace the gaps with ‘wh’ words.
- Who is your favorite wrestler?
- Where did Soledad go on Thursday?
- What do I have to do by myself?
Notice that for the latter two questions (which are Predicate Questions), there’s also some rearranging of the word order and the addition of auxiliary verbs. This is what distinguishes Predicate Questions from Subject Questions, and it’s why they are addressed separately below.
Subject Questions
Purpose
Subject Questions typically ask directly about the subject of a theoretical sentence. In other words, the asker wants to know who or what performs the action or holds the state mentioned in the question.
When BE is used as the main verb, the answer may be either the subject or the subject complement nominal (for instance, “Who is your favorite wrestler?” can be answered either as “Ferocious Rex is my favorite wrestler,” or as “My favorite wrestler is Ferocious Rex.”), but that is up to the person providing the answer; the form of the question should be the same either way.
Another way to use the Subject Questions structure is to inquire about a determiner for subject. We use whose to ask about possessives; how many/much to ask about amounts; and which to ask about demonstratives, distributives, indefinites, or other specifiers.
Form
Asking About Subjects
Subject Questions are nearly identical to declarative questions, with two minor yet significant differences: 1) a ‘WH’ Word stands in for the unknown subject, and 2) the final punctuation is a question mark. In the examples that follow, notice how the word order is identical between the interrogative and declarative versions:
- “Who‘s knocking on the door?” / “Leena’s knocking on the door.”
- “What comes after beta?” / “Gamma comes after beta.”
The ‘WH’ Word for most Subject Questions is either who for people (or anything anthropomorphized or considered to have a personality), or what for anything else. Another option is which, which is used for selecting certain possibilities out of a specified group or category.
- The category may be voiced, as in “Which flavor would you like?” In these cases, the category noun should immediately follow which.
- If the category is obvious from context, it can go unvoiced in the question, as in “Which would you like?” (Here, the listener knows the discussion is about flavor.)
- We can also use what instead of which before a category noun, as in “What flavor would you like?” The meaning is essentially the same, but what tends to be used when the set of available options is less strictly defined.
The verb that follows the ‘WH’ Word should almost always be for 3rd-person singular agreement, even if the answer is 1st– or 2nd-person or is plural. For instance, we say “Who wants ice cream?” not “Who want ice cream?” The exception is if the main noun is BE, in which case it should take the form appropriate to the predicate nominal.
Asking About Determiners
When Subject Questions ask about determiners instead of nominals, the form is mostly the same as other Subject Questions except that the subject noun itself is still present in the question form, and the ‘WH’ Word should precede that subject.
Consider these example questions with their corresponding answers:
- “Whose clothes are in the hamper?” / “Edgar’s clothes are in the hamper.”
- “How many visitors will come tonight?” / “Twenty-six visitors will come tonight.”
- “Which dog bit you?” / “That dog bit me.”
Notice how the overall structure of these question forms remains consistent with declarative sentences.
Predicate Questions
The predicate of a sentence is everything outside of the subject phrase.
Predicate Questions are used to ask about anything that would not be the subject of the answer. They may ask about verbs, object nouns, or modifiers. As such, the Predication Question form is more versatile than the Subject Question form.
While the Subject Question form is modeled after declaratives, the Predicate Question form is modeled after Yes/No Questions. Notably, this means that they include subject-auxiliary inversion.
Seeking Modifiers
Predicate Questions can seek out modifiers in any form, including adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, Adverbial Clauses, and more. Such questions begin with adverbial ‘WH’ Words.
- To ask about the way a verb was done (i.e. method or manner), use how.
- To ask about the time or date something took place, use when.
- To ask about the location something took place, use where.
- To ask about the purpose or the cause, use why.
- To ask about the extent to which a verb was done or the about the extent of a characteristic, use how [generalized adjective/adverb]. Common phrases include ‘how much’, ‘how long’, ‘how far’, and ‘how often’, but many other possibilities exist.
After the ‘WH’ Word (or phrase) comes an auxiliary verb, and then the subject. If the verb would have multiple auxiliaries, then only the first one (called the leading auxiliary) comes between the ‘WH’ Word and the subject. If there would otherwise (in a declarative sentence) be no auxiliary verbs at all, then use DO after the ‘WH’ Word. After the subject comes the rest of the verb string (including any secondary auxiliary verbs), and then the rest of the sentence according to its usual order.
The full order of any Predicate Question looks like this:
Seeking Objects
Other Predicate Questions seek out objects — typically direct objects and indirect objects, but they may be phrasal objects as well (as in: the nouns that complete prepositional phrases, participial phrases, etc.). Such questions begin with nominal ‘WH’ Words.
- To ask about a person, a named animal, or anything personified, use whom.
- It’s counterpart, who, is traditionally considered the incorrect form for objects. However, many modern English speakers do not use whom and instead use who for both subjects and objects.
- To ask about items, abstract nouns, and other non-personified things, use what.
- To ask about a selection of nouns from among a specified group or category, use which.
- Use whose, which, how many, or how much to ask about a determiner for a specified noun (see ‘Asking About Determiners’ above).
While Object Questions employ the same ‘WH’ Words as Subject Questions, the structure of the rest of the sentence is very different. As shown above, the ‘WH’ Word should be followed by an auxiliary, then the subject, then the rest of the verb string for Object Questions.
Preposition Placement
Some object would follow prepositions if they were in the declarative structure. If those objects are substituted with ‘WH’ Words, which are then moved to the front of the clause, then where should its preposition go?
- In formal English, prepositions move with their objects. Since prepositions come before their objects, that means that some Object Questions actually begin with a preposition before the ‘WH’ Word.
- eg: “To whom were you speaking?”; “For what purpose did you do that?”
- In casual English, prepositions stay in their usual place, which is often after the verb.
- eg: “Who were you speaking to?”; “What did you do that for?”
Although ending a sentence with a preposition is sometimes regarded as poor grammar, the reality is that prepositions at the end of Object Questions is perfectly valid.
Seeking Verbs
Predicate Questions can also be used to seek out verbs or whole verb phrases. Such questions begin exclusively with what.
Since the actual verb is unknown to the asker, but the structure of Predicate Questions calls for a verb, we use a form of DO as the main verb. Note that since we also need a leading auxiliary, we might use another DO as that auxiliary, which means that some of these questions will contain two DOs separated by the subject.
For example:
- “What do you do when faced with hard decisions?”
- “What did everyone do last weekend?”
- “What has Jane done with my outfit!?”
- “What are you doing right now?”
Answers to these questions might be standalone verbs, but more often than not they are entire predicates. For example, possible answers to that last question include “shopping,” and “shopping for some new furniture with my roommate.”
Notes on Structure
Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Subject-auxiliary inversion is when the leading auxiliary is placed before the subject. The leading auxiliary is the first auxiliary in a verb string.
- If there are multiple auxiliaries, the second, third, etc. still come after the subject. Only the first auxiliary applies to inversion.
- If the main verb is BE and there are no auxiliaries before it, that BE can serve as the leading auxiliary.
- If there would otherwise be no auxiliary verbs, use DO to satisfy the inversion.
Subject-auxiliary inversion is used for Predicate Questions, but not for Subject Questions.
Inversion should be applied when Predicate Questions form the main clause of a sentence. But when they are instead embedded Content Clauses — as can be found in Indirect Questions — inversion should not be applied, though the rest of the interrogative structure should remain the same.
Minor Shifts
On this page, we’ve focused on the major elements of ‘WH’ Questions in order to point out both their parallels and their differences from declarative sentences. However, there are also some minor changes we did not address above: words that shift to adjust for a different form or perspective while retaining the meaning of the context.
1st-Person & 2nd-Person Pronouns — Since the person asking the question is usually different from the person who is addressed (and who probably provides the answer), each would use 1st-person pronouns for themselves and 2nd-person pronouns for the other. Therefore, a “you” in a question might mirror an “I” or “me” in its answer, and vice-versa. The same is true for possessives.
Adjusted Verb Forms — When the auxiliary DO is added to a Predicate Question (where it might not be included in its corresponding answer), then the form of the main verb might need to change. A leading auxiliary is what indicates whether a verb is past, and the main verb is only in its past form if there are no auxiliaries. Therefore, we see that “Where did Soledad go on Thursday?” and “Soledad went to that new restaurant on Thursday,” have different forms of go, since the former is aided by a past auxiliary while the latter is not.
Included Adpositions
For adverbial ‘WH’ Words like when and where, adpositions are usually included in their meaning. For instance, the answer to a given where might be “in the living room” or “on the table”. Therefore, the adposition does not need to be voiced separately in the question (“Where did I leave my keys at?”), especially if it is a static adposition like at, between, next to, underneath, etc. However:
- An asker might choose to include an adposition to convey specificity. (For instance, are they asking about a specific point, a broader area, a path, etc.?)
- Dynamic prepositions like from, into, past, toward, etc. might not be strictly necessary, but they often provide clarity. Therefore, it’s recommended that you include dynamic prepositions in questions.
If we instead use what to refer to a time or place, it does need to be paired with an adposition, even a static one: “What room did I leave my keys in?” or “At what time does the event begin?” (compared to “When does the event begin?”).
Teaching Tips
Founded in Y/N Questions
Predicate Questions have almost the same structure as Yes/No Questions. The main difference is that the unknown piece is replaced by a ‘WH’ Word, which is then placed at the front of the question. Since Predicate Questions look quite different from declarative sentences, it may help to point out how similar they are to Y/N Questions. Make sure students have a strong grasp of Y/N Questions before diving into ‘WH’ Questions.
Rearranging
Part of learning the structure of various question forms is getting used to the word order.
Write a declarative sentence on a board. Then write it again, but with a key word or phrase missing. That key term is now the answer someone is seeking. Together with the students, decide on which ‘WH’ Word should go at the front of this second sentence, and then figure out if any of the other words need to move around.
As a different exercise, give a set of notecards to each group of students, where each set contains one card for each word or phrase of a declarative sentence, plus a card for each possible ‘WH’ Word, and one more card for ‘do’. First, have the students put the cards in order to form a declarative sentence (or you can just tell them the order for this part). Next, select one of the cards to instead be the answer to a question. The students then have to rearrange the cards and add one or two others in order to complete the question that seeks your chosen answer. Do this part again with a different selected card as a new anwer.
Insider Access
Visit our How to Teach ‘WH’ Questions grammar topic on www.insightstoEnglish.com for a demonstrational video, bonus notes, printouts, a slideshow for your class, practice activities, and more.
Further Reading
Encyclopedia Pages
Insights Articles
- Practice Rearranging Sentences
- project: Family Feud
- project: Celebrity Interview
Intermediate Topics
CEFR Levels B1-B2: Pre-Intermediate to Upper Intermediate courses
