What Are Interrogative Words

What are interrogative words? An interrogative word is used to ask questions.
Wh-questions are used to ask for information about an event or a situation. A wh-
question consists of an interrogative word i.e. who, what, where, when, why
followed by a verb and a noun complement. Word order is subject-verb-object.
For example, "What's the date?", "Where are you?", "Who is he?", "When is it?",
"What's the time?"
Here's a simple activity that I've used in class to teach the five w's to my students.

__________________________________________________________________________________
Mickey Mouse is having a birthday party!
You're invited.
Date: Sunday, June 1st, 2006
Place: Mickey Mouse House, Tokyo Disneyland
Chiba Prefecture, Urayasu City
Time: at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
See you at my party!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Question: What's this?
Answer: This is an invitation
Question: Who is Mickey Mouse?
Answer: Mickey Mouse is my friend./He's a cartoon./He's a mouse.
Question: Where is the party?
Answer: At Mickey Mouse House, Tokyo Disneyland, Chiba Prefecture, Urayasu City

Question: When is the party?
Answer: On Sunday, June 1st, 2006
Question: Why is Mickey Mouse having a party?
Answer: It's his birthday.
I review the grammar points in class and then distribute the invitation handout to the students. Write the questions
on the board and/or prepare a handout with the questions to give out. Have the students work in pairs or in small
groups to come up with the answers. Take up the questions in class. Students correct their answers. If time permits,
have the students practice in pairs asking and answering the questions.
I hope this lesson plan sparks ideas for preparing your own lesson on teaching students interrogative pronouns.


Copyright (c) 2006 Stefan Chiarantano- all rights reserved

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Wh-questions are questions that begin with one of the eight “wh ” words: who, whose, what, when,
which, why, where and how. Questions formed with “wh ” words ask about the word or phrase the “wh ”
word replaces. Who replaces pronouns and the names of people. When the question word is the subject, the
word order doesn't change:“Columbus discovered America in 1492.”“Who discovered America in
1492?”When the “wh ” word replaces a word in the predicate, and the verb includes a modal (such as “can,”
“will,” “may”), a form of “to be,” or a form of the helping verb “have” the predicate and subject are
switched:“He is the president.”“Who is he?”However, when the “wh ” word replaces a word in the predicate,
and the verb phrase does not contain a modal, a form of “be” or a form of the helping verb “have,” “do
formation” is used:
WH- word + “do” + SUBJECT + VERB PHRASE
“Do” always takes the tense of the original verb, and the verb takes the base form:“Jack hit the
president.”“Who did Jack hit?”“Bill loves Mary.” “Who does Bill love?” “Whose” is the possessive form of
“who,” and works the same way:“Shakespeare's plays are well known.”“Whose plays are well known?”
“That is Jack's dog.”“Whose dog is that?”The do formation is used when the verb phrase does not contain a
modal, a form of “be” or a form of the helping verb “have.”“Jack drove Bill's car.”“Whose car did J ack
drive?”“What” replaces any noun or noun phrase that is not a person or pronoun. Questions are formed with
“what” the same way as with “who” and “whose”:“The car hit the dog.”“What hit the dog?”
“Mary's favorite candy is chocolate.”“What is Mary's favorite candy?”The do formation is used when the
verb does not contain a modal, a form of “be” or a form of the helping verb “have”:“Bill bought a
car.”“What did Bill buy?”“When” replaces time specific words (adverbials of time). When a modal, a form of
“be” or a form of the helping verb “have” is used, the subject and predicate are simply switched.“John's
appointment was at four o'clock.”“When was John's appointment?”The do formation is used when the verb
phrase does not contain a modal, a form of “be” or a form of the helping verb:“John arrived at noon.”“When
did John arrive?”“Which” is used when one object among several has to be selected. “Which” replaces the
specific object identified:“That car was involved in the accident.”“Which car was involved in the
accident?”The do formation is used when the verb does not contain a modal, a form of “be” or a form of the
helping verb “have.”“The baseball broke that window.”“Which window did the baseball break?”“Why” does
not replace any specific word or phrase in a sentence. Rather, “why” asks for the reasons an action was
done. The clause in a sentence explaining “why” usually begins with “because....” When the verb is a modal,
a form of “be,” or a form of the helping verb “have,” the subject and predicate are switched:“Mary is thin
because she went on a diet.”“Why is Mary thin?”The do formation is used when the verb phrase does not
contain a modal, a form of the verb “be” or a form of the helping verb “have”:“John missed the bus
because he got up late.”“Why did John miss the bus?”“How” refers to the way, manner, or to what degree
something was done; it replaces adverbs or adverb phrases. If the verb contains a modal, a form of the verb
“be” or a form of the helping verb “have,” the subject and predicate are reversed:“Mary is very
beautiful.”“How beautiful is Mary?”The do formation is used when the verb is not a modal, a form of the
verb “be” or a form of the helping verb “have,”:“John ran quickly to school”“How did J ohn run to
school?”Like “why,” “how” sometimes does not replace a specific word or phrase but asks for the way in
which something was accomplished. The clause in the sentence explaining “how” is usually introduced with
“by”:“Bill passed the test by studying hard.”“How did Bill pass the test?”“Where” refers to adverbials of
place or location. If the verb contains no modal, form of the verb “be” or form of the helping verb “have,”
then the subject and predicate are switched.“The keys are on the table.”“Where are the keys?”