What are Wh- Question Words in English Grammar | And Use Them

What are 'Wh- Question Words' in English Grammar?

In English grammar, "wh- word" is one of the function words used to start a wh- question: what, who, whom, which, whose, when, why, where, and how. The words hu can appear in both direct questions and indirect questions and are used to start hall-clauses. In most English, words are used as relative pronouns. The words are also known as interrogative, question word, wh- pronouns, connected relative.

List of Wh- Words by Parts of Speech

Linguists Mark Lester and Larry Bison say that wh- words are "distinct from flag words in that they belong to different parts of speech." They cite the following examples as the most common words categorized by parts of speech. (Note that many wh- words can be mixed with -wh)
WH-words are also called interrogation. These are used for WH-queries. They can be determinants, verbs or pronouns.

WH- determiners
When used as a determinant, what, which, or who can be used to ask questions:

- About nouns

• What book are you reading and writing?
• Which plane is she catching?
• Whose new jacket is this?
• Which one (1) would you like?
• Which ones did Ruthu want?
• Which colour shall we use?
• Which book sells the most copies?
• Which of these colours shall we use?
• Whose mother did you say she was?
• Whose new bag is this?

WH- pronouns
Pronouns can be who, whose, what, which and the subject or object of a verb.

• Who can help me?
• Whose is the old sports car outside?
• Which was your best subject at college?
• What happened next?
• What have you got to take with you to College?
• Whose is the motorcar parked outside?
• Whose is this?
• Who did you talk to?
• Who would you rather have as a boss?
• To whom did you speak?
• With whom did he go?

Wh- adverbs
Adverb  Wh- words, where, when, how and  why, always make the sentence follow the interrogative word order.

• When asks about this time.
• When will they arrive?
• When shall I see you again?
• Where asks about new place?
• Where is your coat?
• Where are you going?
• Where have you been?
• How asks about manner?
• How did you get there?
• How does this thing job?
• Why is the baby crying now?
• Why are you saving your money?
• How many packs do you want?
• How much money did they take?
• How much does it cost?
• How many do you want?

How not to start in practice, although wh- Lester and Besson say that these two words should be "considered honorary members of the whole wh- family."

Wh- Ever Words

There is a separate class of words that are similar wh- words because they are made up wh- words with the addition of suffixes. 

These include: whoever, wherever, whichever, whenever, and however.  Nominal relative clauses and universal condition clauses begin with terms such wh- words, for example: Wherever Alex go, Alex are sure to have a good time.

Wh- Words in Noun Clauses

Wh- words that are nouns in a noun verse, nouns can work in any one of four noun roles: subject, object of verbs, object of preposition and predictable nominee. Wh- words that play a role in the standard procedure of describing activities time, space, method and cause. Lester refers to the following examples, noting that "all noun clauses play the same external role of verb subjects in the original sentence."
 
Used as nouns between wh- words:

• Subject: Whoever finishes 1st wins the prize.
• Object of verb: Whatever I said it must have been wrong.
• Object of preposition: What they agreed on is right with me.
• Predicate nominative: Who they were is still unknown.

Used as adverbs between wh- words:

• Adverb of time: When you called was not a very good time for me.
• Adverb of place: Where you job is very important.
• Adverb of manner: How Samuel use her leisure time tells a lot about Samuel.
• Adverb of reason: Why they asked that remains a complete mystery to us.

Lester explains, "It is important to understand that noun clauses begin with noun wh- words, just as noun verses begin with nouns, just as noun verses begin with wh- words that are nouns,"

Wh- Words Indicating Movement

“From day one, transformational grammarians have said that a wh- question-and-answer sentence is generated by the rules of a movement in a similarly deep structure to the related questions. So, for example, and ignoring the inversion and the presence of any form, what did Barty give Catherine a sentence like? The form that Barty gave—to Catherine will emerge from the deep structure (The dash in the resulting sentence indicates the site from which the wh- word was extracted). wh- movements can also produce wh- words within embedded sentences and from seemingly infinite depths: Albert tells Barty–to Catherine - what did he give her? What did Zeno announce that Albert said that Barty gave–to Catherine? And so forth. The rule, however, is not entirely illegal. For example, if the wording of the constitution itself is interrogative, extraction cannot take place: Albert asked if Barty gave Katherine a book, but no * What did Albert ask if Barty gave—to Catherine?"

Here are Definition of Descriptive Questions

Final

Hopefully the examples above will clear up your ideas about using the word "WH". To improve your English, you can join a Spoken English Course and easily learn English grammar and its usage.

Watch A Video Summary of Usage

You can easily understand the use of wh- questions by watching the video below: