Interrogative pronouns

Questions?

• The pronoun Who The pronoun who usually refers only to persons. Unlike the other interrogative pronouns, who changes its form depending on the case, as shown in the following table.
• Subjective Case: who
• Objective Case: whom
• Possessive Case: whose

• Choose the correct form of who based on the function of the word in the sentence.

Who…subjective case Whom…objective case

To (who, whom) does the keychain belong?

To is a preposition; the noun or pronoun that ends a prepositional phrase is called the object of the preposition. Hence, you must use the objective case. The objective case is whom .

To whom does the keychain belong?

• (Who or Whom) is your best friend?
• Think…locate the subject and verb to find your answer.

The subject of the sentence is who, the verb is – is, and the predicate nominative is friend.

Your best friend is who? (friend=subject; is=verb; who=predicate nominative)

Who is your best friend?

• You gave (whom or who) my car?
• (You=subject; gave=verb; car=direct object; what is the indirect object?)

• You gave whom my car?

• Whose The form whose can be used either as a possessive adjective followed by a noun, or as a possessive pronoun. The possessive form whose expresses the idea of belonging to. For instance, the idea expressed in the sentence: Whose books are these? could also be expressed by the sentence: To whom do these books belong?

• (Whose or who ’ s) will win the award at the fair?
• Should this read “ Who is will win the award at the fair? ” Or “ Whose will win the award at the fair? ”
• Whose…of course!

• This pencil is (whose, who ’ s)?

• This pencil is whose?

• What and Which What and which can be used either as interrogative pronouns , or as interrogative adjectives followed by nouns. e.g. What is that?       Which is his sister?       What time is it?       Which woman is his sister?

• Which cell phone company has the best plan?
• Interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective?

• Which cell phone company has the best plan?
• Interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective ?
• Which modifies cell phone company.

• Which is your puppy?

• Interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective?

• Which is your puppy?

• Interrogative pronoun or interrogative adjective?