inglese - aggettivi pronomi interrogativi

inglese - aggettivi e pronomi interrogativi

form

for person  subject         who (pron)
                  object           whom who (pron)
                  possessive    whose  (pron and adj)

for things   subject         what (pron and adj)
                  object           whiat (pron and adj)

for person and things  when choise is restricted
                   subject    which
                   object      which

what (adjective)  can be used for persons also. All this adjectives and pronouns  have the same form for singular and plural.

note the who, hose + noun, what, which  when used as subjects are normally followed by an affirmative not an interrogative verb :

who pays the bills ?  Ann pays them

whose  horse won ? The queen's horse won

which of your brothers is getting married ? Tom is

When  we wish  to find out who  performs/performed/will perform an action, we use  who ?  whose ? which ?  with affirmative verb.

whato ? can be used similarly

what happened ?
what went wrong ?

( but with who /what + be + noun/pronoun questions  the interrogative  verb is used 

what day is it ?

we see that is here is interrrogative when we  put the question into reported speech and it becomes

He wants to know what day it is

example of the use of who  whom whose which and what in questions

who, whom, whose

who as subject
 who keeps the key  ?

who/whom as object

who/whom  did you see ? I saw the secretary

whose

whose books are these ?  They are Ann's
whose are these ? (pron) 

what
as subjecte

what delayed you ? pron

as object

what paper do you read ? (adj)  I read New York Time

what did they eat ?  they ate rice

which

as subject

which of them  arrived first ?

as object

which do you like best ? 

who and whom as objects of verbs or prepositions

as direct objects

whom is the technically correct form and is used in formal written and spoken English. In ordinary conversation  howether  we almost Always use who  so that we can say

whom did you meet ?
who did you meet ?

there is no difference in meaning but the second  is much more usual  than than the first
similarly we can say

whom did you help ?
who did you help?

after prepositions

In formal English  the prepositions  is immediately followed by whom

with whom did you go
to whom  were you speaking '

But in ordinary  spoken English we usually move the preposition to the end of the sentence.
whom the normally changes to who

who did you go with ?
who were you speaking to ?

what adjective and pronoun

what is a general interrogative used for things

what time is it ?
what Street is it ?
what does he want ?

when what is used with prepositions the preposition is normally placed at the end of the sentence as shown above :

what did you open it with ?

what.........for ?  = why

what did you di that for ?

what+ be .......like ? is request for a description and can be used for things or people

what was the exam like ? it was very difficult

used of people it may concern either appearance or character

what is he like ? he is friendly or he was tall

what does he/it look like ? concern appearance only  and can also means What does he/it resemble ?

what does he look like ? he looks like a scarecrow.

what is he ? = what is his profession

what adj used for persons is possible be not common

what men are you talking about ?
who are you talking about ?  is much more usual

what  adj is very common in  questions  about measurements. It is used in thi way chiefly with nouns  age size weight  lenght

what height is your room ?
what age is he  ?

which compared with who and what

who is a general interrogative pronoun for persons

what is general interrogativ pronoun ad adjective used mainly for things

which pronoun and adj  is used instead who  and what when the choice is restricted

example of which  and what used for things

what will you have to drink ?
we have gin whisky and sherry  which will you have ?

example of which  and who  used for people

who do you want to speak to ? I want to speak with mr Smith
we have two mr Smith here  john and joe  which do you want ?

which pronoun  of people is not used alone  as subject of a verb

which of you  knows the formula (of you is essential)
 who knows the formula

which adj can be used  of people when there is only a very slight idea of restriction

which poet do you like best ?