Word order - Who (Whom) & What Questions | English Grammar Lesson | B1-Intermediate

[Music]

Hello and welcome everyone to this session,  which is based on a question I have received  

from Simin. Let me share my screen so you can see  what question she has asked me. As you can see,  

she says: Why do we say: Who did you see? but Who  saw you? Why don't we say: Who did see you? Why  

has the word 'did' - the auxiliary - disappeared?  To answer the question, to decide if we need 'did'  

or not, we have to look at which part of the  sentence the question is about. 'who' is asking  

about what part of the sentence: Is it the subject  or the object? Okay, let's have a look at what is  

the subject of a sentence, what is the object  of a sentence. The subject of a sentence does  

the action, does the verb. The object receives  the action, receives the action of the verb. So,  

a very simple sentence like: Jenny saw Simon. If  we ask the question about Jenny, who is the doer,  

the actor, Jenny did the seeing, the question  will be different. Let's look at the question  

about the object, Simon, the part that receives  the action. If we ask the question about Simon,  

then we need a normal question form with the  right help verb. Because our verb is 'saw',  

so it's the past simple tense, we need the help  verb 'did': Who did Jenny see? The answer is:  

Simon. But, if we ask a question about Jenny,  the subject, we do not need a question form  

anymore. The word 'who', the question word 'who'  directly replaces the subject: Jenny saw Simon.  

Remove 'Jenny' and put in 'Who': Who saw Simon?  And the answer is: Jenny. So, that's why sometimes  

with 'who' questions, we see an auxiliary verb and  sometimes we don't. It's about what are we asking  

about. Are we asking about the subject, the doer  or the object, the receiver of the action? Now,  

the subject and the object of a sentence can  be a person like we just saw: Jenny and Simon,  

but they can also be a thing, for example  in the sentence: The ball broke the window.  

The ball is the subject, the thing that's doing  the breaking, and the window is the object, that's  

what's something is happening to the window, it's  receiving the action. The same rule applies. If  

you're asking about the object, the window:  normal question with the auxiliary. 'broke'  

is past simple, we need again the auxiliary 'did':  What did the ball break? It broke the window. But,  

if you ask about the subject, the ball, then  there is no question form, there is no auxiliary:  

The ball broke the window. 'What' replaces 'The  ball': What broke the window? And, the answer is:  

The ball. Okay so, that's just how the language  has developed. There is no logical reason for it.  

We just have to be able to distinguish between  subject and object of a sentence, which I think  

is now clear for you. But, there is a little thing  to remember. The examples we had: Jenny saw Simon,  

and The ball broke the window, in these sentences,  Simon and the window are direct objects. Sometimes  

a sentence has an indirect object, and as you  know, an indirect object is an object that comes  

after a preposition. We have a preposition in the  sentence, for example: Jenny spoke to Simon. Here,  

'Simon' is an indirect object because it has the  word 'to', the preposition 'to' before it. So,  

how do we formulate our question now? There  are two question that come up when we have an  

indirect object. The first question is: Should  we use a different question word, like 'whom'. I  

think you have this idea that 'who' is direct  and 'whom' is indirect. So, first question:  

Should we use 'whom' to ask the question? And  the second question that comes up is: Where  

should we put the preposition? What happens to the  preposition of this indirect object? Now, we have  

three options to formulate a question for this  kind of sentence. Let's look at the three options.  

We can say, we can start with the preposition, and  say: To whom - preposition and the word 'whom',  

the question word 'whom' - To whom did Jenny  speak? That's one option. Another option is to  

keep the word 'whom', use the question word  'whom', but put the preposition at the end,  

like: Whom did Jenny speak to? And, there's a  third option: Forget 'whom' completely. Just  

use 'who' - like we did with a direct object: Who  did Jenny speak to? Preposition at the end. Now,  

maybe you can think about it a little bit. Which  one sounds the best to you? We will see. Actually,  

all three are correct, but they give different  feelings; they have different usages. Let's  

look at that the first one: To whom did Jenny  speak? is very very formal and old-fashioned,  

so I have put that in brackets, saying it's  correct, it's not wrong, but it's very uncommon.  

I personally wouldn't use this formulation  of this question. Number 2 is: We use 'whom',  

not 'who' but 'whom', but put the preposition at  the end: Whom did Jenny speak to? You may hear  

this in American English, not always, but some  American speakers use 'whom' like this, but never,  

not, in British English. In British English, it's  always the third option: 'who'. We tend to avoid  

'whom', just use 'who' and put the preposition  at the end. So, that's the most common in British  

English, and also used in American English. You  can hear both 2 and 3 among American speakers. So:  

Who did Jenny speak to? That's the one I would  recommend you use. Actually, the only time, in  

British English, that you hear the word 'whom' is  in short questions, like if you just say: To whom?  

And then, you must use the 'whom' word. You can't  say: To who? But, 'whom' is so uncommon in British  

English that British speakers very often actually  move the preposition to the end, even with short  

questions. So instead of saying: To whom? -  which still sounds very formal -they just say:  

Who to? That's the most common way of formulating  even short questions in British English. The only  

time in British English you see the word 'whom'  is in the formal phrase: 'To whom it may concern'.  

That's when you write a letter, for example, to  just anybody. This letter can be taken to whoever  

needs to see it, and then, you will see this form:  To whom it may concern. So that is about 'who' and  

'whom'. I hope that's clear now. Let's come back  to 'what' obviously, when the indirect object is  

a thing. The only question word is 'what'. [It]  doesn't matter if it's direct or indirect. But, we  

still have to look at the place of the preposition  with the word, with the question word 'what'. So,  

let's have an example here: Jenny knocked on  the window. So here, 'the window' is an indirect  

object with the preposition 'on'. So let's  see what sounds better to you. Should we say:  

On what did Jenny knock? or What did Jenny knock  on? Maybe you just, sometimes you have to go by  

your ear: What sounds better? Right again, in  British English, definitely it's: What did Jenny  

knock on? It's very uncommon in British English  to start with a preposition, to start a question  

with a preposition. And I think even in American  English, this would be strange. The most common  

question would be: What did Jenny knock on? So,  keep your preposition to the end. Again the only  

time we would hear it at the beginning is in the  short question - the proposition at the beginning  

is in short questions: On what? Then it's okay  there. And I just thought that I mention that the  

same applies to questions with 'which'. 'which'  and 'what' are very similar. 'what' is open,  

global, and 'which' you have to say 'which  what', follows - is followed by a noun. So,  

even if you use 'which': Which window did Jenny  knock on? Preposition at the end, or 'Which  

company does Jenny work for? 'for' at the end.  Okay, that's the end of the presentation on this  

topic. I hope it has clarified a little bit how to  formulate questions with 'who', 'what', 'which',  

and occasionally if you want to speak American  English 'whom' correctly. I hope you've enjoyed  

this lesson. For more on this topic, click here.  Remember to also check out my complete online  

course, and don't forget to like and subscribe.  Thank you for watching, and happy studies!