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180
Tell everybody that they are to wait a bit.
Everybody lowered their eyes.
The women stood by the gates and everyone told her own story.
§ 225. Interrogative pronouns indicate persons or non-persons or tlieir properties as unknown to the
speaker and requiring to be named in the answer. Accordingly they are used to form special (or pronominal)
questions.
This subclass of pronouns comprises who, whose, what, which, whoever, whatever, whichever. Of these only
the pronoun who has the category of case — the objective case is whom. However there is a strong tendency in
colloquial English to use who instead of whom, especially with prepositions.
Who did you get it from?
Who have you been with?
Who do you mean?
instead of Whom did you get it from? (or from whom), Whom have you been with? (or with whom). Whom do
you mean?
Who, whose, whoever have personal reference, what, whatever have non-personal reference, and which may
have both personal and non-personal reference.
The number of the persons implied by who can be derived from the context. Accordingly the predicate-verb
may be in the singular or in the plural.
Who has come? It’s my brother.
Who are to come today?
When who is used as predicative, the link verb naturally agrees with the subject:
Who is she? Who are you? Who were those people?
The pronouns what may be both a noun-pronoun (что?) and an adjective-pronoun (каков? какой?). It has
mostly a non-personal reference, as in:
What has happened?
What is his name?
What did you say?
What are you looking at?
What book are you reading?
When what is used as subject it is, unlike who, always used with the predicate verb in the singular.
What is there on the table? - Some books and papers.
However when what is used as a predicative the link verb agrees with the subject.
What are their names?
What and who can both be used as predicatives in questions concerning persons. In this case they convey
different meanings. Who-questions inquire about the person's name or parentage, while what-questions inquire
about person’s occupation, profession, rank, etc.
“Who are you?” — “I am your sister’s son.”
“Who is he?” – “He is Mr. Smith.”
“What is she?”- “She is a painter”.