The Questionable Interrogative Pronouns


The Questionable Interrogative Pronouns
Now that the personal, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns have been conquered, the next type of pronoun you need to have under your belt before you can bubble pronominally in Russian are the interrogative pronouns, the ones we use to ask questions. Once you have these mastered, you can ask Russians about the remainder of the grammar of their language.
Now that we have mastered (more or less) the personal, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns, the next type of pronoun you need to have under your belt before you can bubble pronominally in Russian are the interrogative pronouns, the ones we use to ask questions. Once you have these under your belt, you can ask Russians about the remainder of the grammar of their language.
All the languages of the world have exactly two types of questions and that includes Russian. The first type is called a 'yes-no' question. 'Yes-no' questions beg the answer "yes" or "no" and do not require an interrogative pronoun. In English, for exmaple, if I ask you, Did you do your homework? I expect a crisp, clear answer of either yes or no, not, Uh, well, you know, uh, like, my mother doesn't, like, like me answering questions like, like, that. Sometimes I'm disappointed but my intent in asking a 'yes-no' question is clear.
In other situations, however, we need to know who did what to whom if not even when and where and how. The boldface words in the previous sentence are the English interrogative pronouns; their Russian counterparts are listed on the right-hand side of the following table, taken from the demonstrative pronoun page.

T-K Pronominal Pairs
Demonstrative Pronouns Interrogative Pronouns
тот, то, та, те that, those кто? что? who, what
такой, такая, такие
that kind of		 какой? какая7 какие?
what kind of
так thus, so как? "how"
там, туда, оттуда
there, thither, thence		 где? куда? откуда?
where, whither, whence
тогда then когда? when
столько that many сколько? how many
потому for that reason почему? why


Notice that this table has a new member, чей "whose", that has no demonstrative correlate. That is because the answer to this interrogative pronoun must always be a personal pronoun: мой, твой, его, её, наш, ваш, их.

Here are some sentences illustrating how they are used in actual questions.
Кто открыл дверь? | Who opened the door?
Что открыло жверь? | What opened the door?
Чьяэто лягушка? | Whose frog is that?
Какая это женщина? | What kind of woman is she?
Как сказать по-русски [like]? | How do you say 'like' in Russian?
где ты нашла его? | Where did you find him?
Кудаон девался? | Where did he get to?
откудаты взяла его? | Where did you get him from?
Когдаон родился? | When was he born?
Сколько ты хочешь взять за машину? | How much do you want for your car?
Почему ты хочешь ее настолько? | Why do you want it so much?

Remember that the nominal (кто, что and the adjectival pronouns (какой, чей) are sensitive to case just like lexical nouns and adjectives. The following examples illustrate this.
На чем сидит твоя лягушка? What is your frog sitting on?
Кому ты дал свою лягушку? To whom did you give your frog?
Каким ножом он кушает? Which knife does he eat with?
С чьей индейкой он идет? Whose turkey is he going with?