Verbal Ability - Wh-questions
There are two types of questions, open-ended questions and close-ended questions. Open-ended questions encourage the speaker to speak more in response, whereas close-ended questions keep the conversation to the point and restricted.
Both open-ended questions and close-ended questions have their own applications. For example — cops use close-ended questions (Were you present there?) whereas, psychiatrists use open-ended questions ( What would you describe yourself as?)
That’s the reason close-ended questions are often defined as “yes-no” questions, whereas open-ended questions are defined as “Wh-questions”.
Wh-questions are named so as they all begin with the letters “wh”. The notable exception is “how” which doesn’t have “wh” at the beginning but is still clubbed under “wh” questions as it is an open-ended question.
List of wh-questions and their application
| Who | Identification of person | Who's there? |
| Where | Identification of place | Where do you live? |
| Why | Identification of reason | Why do you wake me up? |
| When | Identification of time | When do you go to work? |
| How | Identification of manner | How do you pronounce “geyser”? |
| What | Identification of object/action | What do you do? |
| Which | Identification of choice | Which one will you take? |
| Whose | Identification of possession | Whose car is this? |
| Whom | Identification of object of the verb | Whom did you talk to? |
| How many | Identification of countable quantity | How many potatoes are there? |
| How much | Identification of uncountable quantity | How much money do you have? |