An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question , such as what, which , when , where , who , whom, whose , why , whether and how . They are sometimes called wh-words , because in English most of them start with wh- (compare Five Ws ). They may be used in both direct questions ( Where is he going? ) and in indirect questions ( I wonder where he is going ). In English and various other languages the same forms are also used as relative pronouns in certain relative clauses ( The country where he was born ) and certain adverb clauses ( I go where he goes ). It can also be used as a modal, since question words are more likely to appear in modal sentences, like ( Why was he walking? )
28-1469: A particular type of interrogative word is the interrogative particle , which serves to convert a statement into a yes–no question , without having any other meaning. Examples include est-ce que in French , ли li in Russian , czy in Polish , чи chy in Ukrainian , ĉu in Esperanto , āyā آیا in Persian , কি ki in Bengali , 嗎 / 吗 ma in Mandarin Chinese , mı / mi / mu / mü in Turkish , pa in Ladin , か ka in Japanese , 까 kka in Korean , ko/kö in Finnish, tat in Catalan , (да) ли (da) li in Serbo-Croatian and al and ote in Basque . "Is it true that..." and "... right?" would be
56-614: A participle , which respectively provide the main semantic content of the clause. An example is the verb have in the sentence I have finished my lunch. Here, the auxiliary have helps to express the perfect aspect along with the participle, finished . Some sentences contain a chain of two or more auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs , helper verbs , or (verbal) auxiliaries . Research has been conducted into split inflection in auxiliary verbs. Below are some sentences that contain representative auxiliary verbs from English , Spanish , German and French , with
84-436: A full verb. (The asterisk * is the means commonly used in linguistics to indicate that the example is grammatically unacceptable or that a particular construction has never been attested in use). The following examples illustrate that the negation not can appear as a postdependent of a finite auxiliary verb, but not as a postdependent of a finite full verb: A third diagnostic that can be used for identifying auxiliary verbs
112-429: A modal verb that allows both interpretations. African American Vernacular English makes a variety of finer tense/aspect distinctions than other dialects of English by making use of unique variant forms of, in particular: habitual 'be' , reduced 'done' (dən), and stressed 'been' (BIN): 'She is always telling people she's eight' 'I have (already) pushed it' 'I've known that for a long time' The verbs listed in
140-666: A similar construct in English. Such particles contrast with other interrogative words, which form what are called wh -questions rather than yes–no questions. For more information about the grammatical rules for using formed questions in various languages, see Interrogative . Interrogative words in English can serve as interrogative determiners, interrogative pronouns, or interrogative adverbs. Certain pronominal adverbs may also be used as interrogative words, such as whereby or wherefore . The interrogative words which, what, and whose are interrogative determiners when used to prompt
168-613: A singular ignorative stem may serve a variety of interrogative functions that would be expressed by different lexical items in, say, English through contextual variation and interaction with other morphology such as case-marking . In Jingulu , for example, the single stem nyamba may come to mean 'what,' 'where,' 'why,' or 'how' through combination with locative , dative , ablative , and instrumental case suffixes: nyamba IGNOR nyamarni 2SG . ERG manjku skin.name nyamba nyamarni manjku Yes%E2%80%93no question Too Many Requests If you report this error to
196-507: A small child." (Example taken from an Internet forum) Interrogative pronouns in Australian Aboriginal languages are a diverse set of lexical items with functions extending far beyond simply the formation of questions (though this is one of their uses). These pronominal stems are sometimes called ignoratives or epistememes because their broader function is to convey differing degrees of perceptual or epistemic certainty. Often,
224-422: A source of confusion about their status. The modal verbs ( can , could , may , might , must , shall , should , will , would , and dare , need and ought when included) form a subclass of auxiliary verbs. Modal verbs are defective insofar as they cannot be inflected , nor do they appear as gerunds, infinitives, or participles. The following table summarizes the auxiliary verbs in standard English and
252-413: Is as follows: The status of dare (not) , need (not) , and ought (to) is debatable and the use of these verbs as auxiliaries can vary across dialects of English. If the negative forms can't , don't , won't , etc. are viewed as separate verbs (and not as contractions), then the number of auxiliaries increases. The verbs do and have can also function as full verbs or as light verbs , which can be
280-810: Is classed as an auxiliary even though it does not "help" another verb, e.g., Definitions of auxiliary verbs are not always consistent across languages, or even among authors discussing the same language. Modal verbs may or may not be classified as auxiliaries, depending on the language. In the case of English, verbs are often identified as auxiliaries based on their grammatical behavior, as described below. In some cases, verbs that function similarly to auxiliaries, but are not considered full members of that class (perhaps because they carry some independent lexical information), are called semi-auxiliaries . In French, for example, verbs such as devoir (have to), pouvoir (be able to), aller (be going to ), vouloir (want), faire (make), and laisser (let), when used together with
308-568: Is the interrogative verb: 날씨가 Nalssi-ga Weather- NOM 어떻 습니까? eotteo -sseumni-kka? be.how- POL5 - INTERR 날씨가 어떻 습니까? Nalssi-ga eotteo -sseumni-kka? Weather-NOM be.how- POL5 -INTERR "How's the weather?" Chi You yaa -vch do.what- CONC jaahan small huuhed child bish not gej that bi I bod-jii-ne think- PROG - NPAST Chi yaa -vch jaahan huuhed bish gej bi bod-jii-ne You do.what-CONC small child not that I think-PROG-NPAST "Whatever you do, I think you're not
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#1732863153333336-439: Is verb phrase ellipsis. See the article on verb phrase ellipsis for examples. These criteria lead to the copula be and non-copular use of be as an existential verb being considered an auxiliary (it undergoes inversion and takes postdependent not , e.g., Is she the boss? , She is not the boss , Is there a God? , There is a God ). However, if one defines auxiliary verb as a verb that somehow "helps" another verb, then
364-606: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 443152059 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 06:52:33 GMT Auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated aux ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense , aspect , modality , voice , emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or
392-408: The auxiliary verb marked in bold: These auxiliaries help express a question, show tense/aspect, or form passive voice. Auxiliaries like these typically appear with a full verb that carries the main semantic content of the clause. Auxiliary verbs typically help express grammatical tense , aspect , mood , and voice . They generally appear together with an infinitive. The auxiliary is said to "help"
420-429: The city center? the word which is an interrogative determiner for the noun road . The interrogative words where, when, how, why, whether, whatsoever , and the more archaic whither and whence are interrogative adverbs when they modify a verb. In the question How did you announce the deal? the interrogative word how is an interrogative adverb because it modifies the verb did (past tense of to do ). In
448-532: The clauses in which they appear. Hence both do not qualify as separate predicates , but rather they form part of a predicate with another expression – usually with a full verb in the case of auxiliary verbs and usually with a noun in the case of light verbs. In English, light verbs differ from auxiliary verbs in that they cannot undergo inversion and they cannot take not as a postdependent. The verbs have and do can function as auxiliary verbs or as light verbs (or as full verbs). When they are light verbs, they fail
476-423: The copula be is not an auxiliary, because it appears without another verb. The literature on auxiliary verbs is somewhat inconsistent in this area. There are also some properties that some but not all auxiliary verbs have. Their presence can be used to conclude that the verb is an auxiliary, but their absence does not guarantee the converse. One such property is to have the same form in the present tense, also for
504-400: The first and the third person singular. This in particular is typical for modal auxiliary verbs, such as will and must . (Examples: He will come tomorrow , she must do it at once , not he wills or she musts .) Some syntacticians distinguish between auxiliary verbs and light verbs . The two are similar insofar as both verb types contribute mainly just functional information to
532-698: The first word, by changing the intonation or punctuation of a statement. For example: "You're done eating?" Most English interrogative words can take the suffix -ever , to form words such as whatever and wherever . (Older forms of the suffix are -so and -soever , as in whoso and whomsoever .) These words have the following main meanings: Some of these words have also developed independent meanings, such as however as an adverb meaning "nonetheless"; whatsoever as an emphatic adverb used with no , none , any , nothing , etc. ( I did nothing wrong whatsoever ); and whatever in its slang usage. A frequent class of interrogative words in several other languages
560-575: The infinitive of another verb, can be called semi-auxiliaries. There has also been a study on auxiliary verb constructions in Dravidian languages. The following sections consider auxiliary verbs in English. They list auxiliary verbs, then present the diagnostics that motivate this special class (subject-auxiliary inversion and negation with not ). The modal verbs are included in this class, due to their behavior with respect to these diagnostics. A list of verbs that (can) function as auxiliaries in English
588-405: The infinitive. The auxiliary verbs of a language form a closed class , i.e., there is a fixed, relatively small number of them. Widely acknowledged verbs that can serve as auxiliaries in English and many related languages are the equivalents of be to express passive voice, and have (and sometimes be ) to express perfect aspect or past time reference. In some treatments, the copula be
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#1732863153333616-484: The inversion and negation diagnostics for auxiliaries, e.g. Note that in some dialects (for example, the West and South West dialects of Hiberno-English ), the inversion test may sound correct to native speakers. (In some cases, though, have may undergo auxiliary-type inversion and negation even when it is not used as an auxiliary verb – see Subject–auxiliary inversion § Inversion with other types of verb .) Sometimes
644-461: The meaning contribution to the clauses in which they appear. Many auxiliary verbs are listed more than once in the table based upon discernible differences in use. Deontic modality expresses an ability, necessity, or obligation that is associated with an agent subject. Epistemic modality expresses the speaker's assessment of reality or likelihood of reality. Distinguishing between the two types of modality can be difficult, since many sentences contain
672-408: The place of a noun or noun phrase . In the question Who is the leader?, the interrogative word who is a interrogative pronoun because it stands in the place of the noun or noun phrase the question prompts (e.g. the king or the woman with the crown ). Similarly, in the question Which leads to the city center? the interrogative word which is an interrogative pronoun because it stands in
700-406: The place of a noun or noun phrase (e.g. the road to the north or the river to your east ). Note, which is an interrogative pronoun , not an interrogative determiner , because there is no noun or noun phrase present to serve as a determiner for. Consequently, in the question Which leads to the city center? the word which is an interrogative pronoun; when in the question Which road leads to
728-399: The previous section can be classified as auxiliaries based upon two diagnostics: they allow subject–auxiliary inversion (the type of inversion used to form questions etc.) and (equivalently) they can take not as a postdependent (a dependent that follows its head ). The following examples illustrate the extent to which subject–auxiliary inversion can occur with an auxiliary verb but not with
756-419: The question Why should I read that book? the interrogative word why is an interrogative adverb because it describes the verb should . Note, in direct questions, interrogative adverbs always describe auxiliary verbs such as did, do, should, will, must, or might . Yes–no questions can begin with an interrogative particle, such as: English questions can also be formed without an interrogative word as
784-517: The specification of a presented noun or noun phrase such as in the question Which farm is the largest? where the interrogative determiner which prompts specification of the noun farm . In the question Whose gorgeous, pink painting is that? , whose is the interrogative , personal , possessive determiner prompting a specification for the possessor of the noun phrase gorgeous pink painting . The interrogative words who, whom, whose, what, and which are interrogative pronouns when used in
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