Questions That Begin with "Who": Part 1

 

Today we continue our chapter, "Questions." This lesson is primarily for beginners and intermediate learners of English.

Some knowledge of grammar is necessary to learn how to correctly structure a "who" question.

To learn about sentence structure in preparation for this lesson, please click here.

Preview

How to Punctuate a Question in Quoted Speech

Questions that begin with "who" may follow one of two structures. 

Read the statement below and the three questions about the statement.  Notice how the sentence structure of question #1 is different from that of questions #2 and #3 below:

My daughter spoke to the doctor about her broken finger.

  1. Who spoke to the doctor?

  2. Who did your daughter speak to?

  3. What did your daughter speak to the doctor about?

Did you ever notice that, or wonder why, there are different structures for a question?  To determine the proper structure for a question that begins with who, you need to know what the grammatical structure of the answer will be!

1) When the Answer to the who Question Is the Subject of the Verb

Chart for Structure of Verbs in Negative Questions

Use the following structure when:

  •  the answer to the question beginning with who is the subject (s) of the verb

who Main Verb (MV) rest of the sentence   Answer
 
Who *** wants to go?   I want to go.
Who *** doesn't make mistakes?   Nobody doesn't make mistakes.
Who *** hasn't made a mistake?   Nobody hasn't made a mistake.
Who helped you?   Roger helped me.
Who *** was the largest president of the United States?   He was William Taft.  Taft was 6 feet 4 inches tall.  He also weighed over 350 pounds.
Who could have known what was going to happen? = Nobody could have known what was going to happen.

The Pronoun who

The pronoun 'who'

***  The pronoun who is 3rd person singular.  Therefore, when the verb is in the present tense or is a 'be" verb of past tense, it must be in the 3rd person singular form. ***

2)  When the Answer to the who Question is the Object of the Verb

when the answer to the who question is the object of the verb

Next:  Part 2:

To learn about how to structure the question when the answer is the object of the verb, click here.

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