What …? Which …? How …? | Improve Tuition | Tutors | Tuition | Tutoring | Tutor

What …? Which …? How …?

 

    When constructing questions with the word ‘What’ they can either be followed by a noun or without a noun.

    What + Noun

    • What brand is your fridge?
    • What measurement are you looking for?
    • What kind of games are you interested in?

     

    The other type of questions starting with the word ‘What’ can be followed by words from other word classes.

    What + Pronouns/ Determiners/ Verbs etc.

    • What’s her favorite dessert?
    • What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

     

    Which + Noun (Things or people)

    • Which day can we meet up for coffee, Thursday or Saturday?
    • Which jam do you prefer- strawberry or raspberry?
    • Which players do you like the most- Messi or Ronaldo?

    We also use ‘Which’ without being followed by a noun=n when asking about things.

    • Which is the faster car- Audi or BMW?
    • Which is the better phone, iPhone or Samsung?

     

    When asking about a few specific things, or a small number of possibilities, the word ‘Which’ is used to start the question.

    • We can either travel by boat or Train. Which do you prefer?
    • There are four possible days to book an appointment. Which day would you like?

     

    By using ‘What’ at the start of a question, there are endless possibilities and is a more general question.

    • What sort of movie do you like? (From all the genres of movies)
    • What is the busiest city in America? (From all the cities in America)
    • What flavour ice cream do you like? (From all the flavours of ice cream available)

     

    In the following questions we can now compare how questions are constructed when using the words ‘which’ or ‘what.’

    • What colour bag do you want?
    • Which colour do you prefer, pink or purple?
    • What is the most popular country in the world?
    • Which is the most popular country, America, Spain or China?

    When writing questions with ‘how’ you can use How + Adjective/ Adverb  

    What …? Which …? How …?  

    1 2 3 4 5 6  

    “We aim above the mark, to hit the mark.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

    ++44 (0)1924 506010