Wh questions

• What
• What for
• What kind of
• Where
• When
• Who
• Which
• Why
• Whose
• What time
• How
• How much
• How many
• How far
• How long
• How come

A question that starts with where asks about a place or location.

Where do you live?

Where are you from?

Where is your dad?

Where do you go for vacation?

Where are my keys?

A question with when can be answered by any time expression. Some sample answers are: last week, in June, in the morning, at midnight, at noon, in the evening, two years ago, five weeks ago, on Saturday, and so on.

Three weeks ago

In the morning

• Sample questions:

When do you leave?

When will you come back home?

When are you supposed to be there?

When can you meet me?

A question with what time asks about time on the clock. It can be answered with expressions such as at two o’clock, around four o’clock, a quarter past nine, a quarter to six, half past three, and so on.

What time will you arrive?

What time does the train leave?

What time is your class?

What time does the movie start?

A question with why asks about the reason for something. The answer starts with the word because. For example, because it was cold; because she was in a rush; and because they had a class.

Why are you late?

Why is she down?

Why can’t you explain it to me?

Why does she behave like she is crazy?

Why can’t you attend the party?

A question with ‘what for’ has the same meaning as a question with ‘why’. The answer is the reason for something. 

What did he leave for?

What does he cry for?

What did she try for?

‘How come’ asks about the reason for something and it is similar to ‘what for’ and ‘why’. The only difference is the format of the question. When we have ‘how come’, we don’t use the usual question order. The subject precedes the verb and no auxiliary verb is used. 

How come you are late?

How come she left so early?

How come your clothes are all wet?

How come you aren’t at the party?

• Who can be used as the subject of the question. 

Who is she?

Who do you go out with?

Who will come to the slumber party tonight?

Who is that pretty girl over there?

• Who can be used as the object of the in a question. 

Who did you meet at school?

Who did you see in that park?

Who did you talk to?

Who does she hang out with?

Who will be your future wife?

• Whom is used in very formal English. In every day spoken English ‘who’ is usually used instead of ‘whom’. Whom asks about the object of the sentence. 

Whom did you see?

Whom does she hang out with?

• What can be used as either the subject or object of the question. When it is used as the object, the normal question word order is used. 

What did she do?

What does she want?

What do you do for a living?

What will she say when she hears the bad news?

What are you going to do about your classes? 

• Note: When who or what is used as the subject of the question, usual question word order is not used. No form of do is used in these cases. 

What happened to you?

What is wrong with you?

What made you upset?

What caused the accident?

• Which is used when the speaker wants someone to make a choice, when the speaker is offering some choices: this one or that one, these or those. 

Which one do you prefer?

Which color would you choose?

Which book will you buy?

Which one is more expensive?

Which car is your favorite?

Which ones are more beautiful?

• Which can also be used to refer to people.

Which one is your son?

Which one is your mom?

‘What kind of’ asks about the information about a specific type or kind in a general category. 

What kind of shoes do you want?

What kind of food would you prefer?

What kind of car do you like to buy?

What kind of juice would you like?

What kind of book are you looking for?

Whose asks about possession. To answer this question, you can use possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns. For example, it is mine or it is my book. 

Whose car is it?

Whose books are those?

Whose house is this?

Whose pen did you take?

whose shirt did you wear?

Whose camera did you bring?

Whose letter did she post?

• How has various uses. One common usage of ‘how’ is to ask about means of transportation. 

How did you come here? I drove by car. 

How do you go to school? I take the bus.

How does she get to her office? She walks, or she goes on foot.

• How can be used with adjectives and adverbs, too.

How tall is she?

How big was the apartment?

How fast can you run?

How sleepy are you?

How well do you speak English?

How cold is it?

• Other questions with ‘how’:

How do you spell that word?

How do you say ‘no’ in Spanish?

How do you pronounce this word?

How are you getting along?

How are you doing?

How is it going?

How do you feel?

How do you do?

• How often asks about frequency. You can use these expressions to answer the questions with how often: a lot, once a week, twice a month, three times a year, occasionally, once in a while, not very often, hardly ever, rarely, always, usually, often, sometimes, never, almost never, every day, every other day, every two week, and so on. 

How often do you go shopping?

How often do you travel?

How often do you play the guitar?

How often did you visit your grandparents?

How often does she come here?

• You can use ‘how many times a day, week, month, or year’ instead of ‘how often’. 

How many times a day do you brush your teeth?

How many times a week do you attend English classes?

How many times a month do you go to the pool?

How many times a year do you travel?

• How far asks about the distance.

How far is your house? It is four blocks away from here.

How far is it from your town to the capital city? It is 725 miles.

• Other ways to ask how far:

Ho many miles is it from Mashad to Tehran?

How many kilometers is it from here to Tehran?

How many blocks is it to the nearest post office?

• How long asks about length of time. 

How long does it take to make that food? It takes 2 hours.

How long did it take to come here? It took about 30 minutes.

How long did you study for the test last night? I studies for about 5 hours.

How long will you be out of town? I’ll be away for about ten days. 

• Other ways of asking how long:

How many days will you be out of town?

How many hours will it take?

How many weeks will you be away?

How many years does it take to reach your goals?

• ‘How much’ and ‘how many’ are both used to talk about the quantity or the amount of something. After both these question words, we use a noun.
• How much is used with uncountable nouns. 

How much sugar do we need?

How much water do you want?

How much money do you have?

How much time do you spend surfing the net each day?

How much coffee do you drink?

• How many is used with countable nouns.

How many sisters do you have?

How many days a week do you work?

How many years have you been there?

How many pets do you have in the house?

How many English words do you know?

How many languages can you speak?

• ‘how about’ and ‘what about’ have the same meaning and usage. They are both used to make suggestions or to offer something. These two question words are followed by a noun, a pronoun, or the ing form of the verb.

How about/ What about Sara?

How about/ What about four sharp?

How about/ What about going to the park instead? 

How about/ What about inviting them over for lunch next week?

• ‘How about you?’ and ‘ What about you?’ are used to ask a question that refers to the information or question that immediately precedes it. 

I’m tired. How about you?

I am starving. What about you?

• ‘how about’ and ‘what about’ are frequently used in informal spoken English, but are usually not used in academic writing.

Are you scared? No, what about you?