UNIT
33
Subject and object questions
• Questions normally require the inversion of an auxiliary (be, do or modal verb) and the subject; however, when the WH- pronoun or adjective is the subject of a question, the structure is the same as in affirmative sentences. Compare these two examples: Subject Who did he pick up from the station? (he picked somebody from the station) Subject Who picked him up from the station? (somebody picked him from the station) • You can better understand this difference if you look at the answers to these questions: Who did he pick up from the station? He picked up his brother from the station. (‘who’ refers to the object = his brother) Who picked him up from the station? Samuel picked him up from the station. (‘who’ refers to the subject that picked him up) • who, what and which can all be the subject of questions; in less frequent cases you may also find whose, how many or how much. Look at the examples: Who killed Abraham Lincoln? What is going on? Which of those children won the drawing contest? Whose father wants to talk to the teacher? How many students took part in the race? Questions with final preposition • When a question starting with who, what or which contains a verb that is followed by a preposition, the preposition is at the end of the question: What are you looking at? Which book are they talking about? Who is this parcel for? • In spoken English you can often omit the verb when asking this type of questions during a conversation: Can you give me your phone number? What for? • In formal English we may find prepositions before the WH- question word, but this happens very rarely: In what kind of hobbies is your sister interested? In which of these teams of Formula 1 did Michael Schumacher run? • When referring to a person, you must use whom if the preposition is placed at the beginning of the question: To whom did you give your address? With whom would you like to speak?
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