An Interrogative Pronoun is a pronoun that shows that the sentence or clause in which it stands is a question.

Examples: What have you seen? Whom has mother written to? She said, "Who was offended?"

To determine the construction of an interrogative pronoun, frame a direct answer to the question and see how the word in the answer that corresponds to the pronoun is used. The pronoun must have a like construction in the question.

Exercise 184

Select the interrogative pronouns and give the construction of each. Make a list of the constructions in which you find them used.

1. Whom do you see? (I see Mary).

2. Whose book is this?

3. To whom did you give the money?

4. Who is the old man that we passed?

5. What did she talk about?

6. She exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

7. Which is your book? & What is her name?

Exercise 185

Write sentences using interrogative pronouns in five noun constructions. See if you can use them in other ways.

Exercise 186. Composition

Make a list of words that may be used as either conjunctive pronouns or interrogative pronouns. Write sentences to illustrate each use of these words.

Exercise 187. Development

He asked, "What is John doing?" He asked what John was doing.

How are the words, "What is John doing?" used? What kind of clause are they? Why are the comma and quotation marks used? Why is the question mark used? What kind of pronoun is what?

How does the second sentence differ in meaning from the first? Then how is the clause used? What kind of pronoun is what? Why are the quotation marks not used? Why do you suppose the question mark is not used?

The words What is John doing? are a direct question and a direct quotation. The words what John was doing are an indirect question and an indirect quotation.