Question Words in English

Question words with examples

Nearly all question words in English start with the same two letters – WH. That’s why questions with question words are also called WH-questions.

Question word	Purpose	Example
where	Asking about places	Where are you from?
who	Asking about people	Who are you?*
who	Asking about people	Who did you phone?**
when	Asking about time	When did you arrive?
what	Asking about things or activities	What does he do at weekends?
what	Asking about specific things or characteristics	What type of car do you drive?
why	Asking the reason for something	Why are you here?
whose	Asking about ownership	Whose book is this?
which	Asking to specify a number of things or people	Which bus do you take to school?
how	Combined with many words to ask about characteristics, qualities, quantities, etc. For example: How much (price), How long (length), How often (frequency)	How old are you?

* This is a subject question.

** This is an object question.

For more information see: Questions with who and what see: Subject – Object Object Questions in English