How to use interrogative words in German?

In German, we mostly use interrogative words to ask questions. In German, these words are also known as "W"-wörter (meaning "W"-words), because words like wer (meaning who) or warum (meaning why) start with the letter w.

• Wer ist das?

  Translation: Who is that?
• Warum macht sie das?

  Translation: Why is she doing that?

There are three types of interrogatives: interrogative adverbs, pronouns, and adjectives. In this post, we’ll introduce you to interrogatives in each of these groups and give you some tips on how to use them in German. Let’s find out more!

In German, we distinguish three types of interrogatives:

1. Interrogative adverbs, (e.g. wo (meaning where), wann (meaning when)) let us ask for a specific circumstance, like a place or a time.

2. Interrogative pronouns (e.g. was (meaning what) or wer (meaning who)) stand in for the noun that will answer the question.

3. Interrogative adjectives, (e.g. welche (meaning which)) stand with a noun to ask for a choice or type of that noun.

Let’s look at interrogatives adverbs and pronouns:

Here are the most important interrogative adverbs in German:

Let’s look at some examples:

Let’s move on to interrogatives that need a little more work: interrogative pronouns!

In German, we use the following words and phrases as interrogative pronouns, to ask about nouns:

Let’s talk about each pattern!

The next two interrogatives, welche (meaning whi) and was für ein (meaning what kind of) always stand before a noun. Welche lets us ask for information that will identify a specific noun while was für ein lets us ask for a type of item:

Welcher and was für ein take add an ending providing information on the case, the gender, and the number of the noun they stand with. Here are the forms of each word:

Let’s look at some examples of how you can use those interrogative adjectives:

1. Let’s say you need to know what kind of cake (der Kuchen) your friend wants.

   accusative masculine

   Was für einen Kuchen möchtest du?

   Translation: What kind of cake would you like?

2. You want to ask which laptop (der Laptop) you can work with.

   dative masculine

   Mit welchem Laptop soll ich arbeiten?

   Translation: Which laptop should work with?

Interrogative pronouns are used in two different constructions, which differ in word order:

1. Direct questions, which ask for specific pieces of information:

   interrogativeverb

   Wer ist das?

   Translation: Who is that?

   Welchen Kuchen möchtest du?

   Translation: Which cake would you like?

   In direct questions, the interrogative pronoun stands at the beginning and is followed by the verb.

2. Indirect questions, which state that someone has a question:

   interrogativeverb

   Ich frage mich, wer das ist.

   Translation: I wonder who that is.

   Weißt du, welchen Kuchen du möchtest?

   Translation: Do you know which cake you would like?

   An indirect question starts with a phrase indicating that someone lacks a specific knowledge. The interrogative pronoun serves as a connecting word (or subordinating conjunction) and connects another clause that contains the actual question. If an interrogative pronoun is used as a conjunction, the conjugated verb in that clause moves to the end.

3. Relative clauses, which describe a noun or a clause. In German, interrogatives are only used to introduce a few specific types of relative clauses, but you’ll often hear was (meaning wgh), wo (meaning where), wohin (meaning where to), woher (where from) (meaning where from) and the wo-compounds used this way:

   Das Auto ist total kaputt, was mich sehr traurig macht.

   Translation: The car is totally broken, which makes me very sad.

   Describes a clause

   Die Stadt, wo ich wohne, heißt Stralsund.

   Translation: The city where I live is called Stralsund.

   Describes a noun (a place)

Here are some idioms and useful phrases in German that use interrogatives:

Here’s what you should remember about German interrogative words:

• We went over some interrogative words and how to use them:

  • Interrogative adverbs like wo (meaning where), wann (meaning when), warum (meaning why), or wie (meaning how) are used to ask for descriptive information about an action or situation.

  • To ask about non-human nouns, use was or a wo-compound (if the noun is the object of a preposition.)

  • To ask about human (or human-like) nouns, use wer (meaning who)

  • To ask for identifying information you can use welche (meaning which)or was für ein (meaning what kind?)

  • While was, wo-compounds, and interrogative adverbs never change their forms, wer, welche, and was für ein are declined for case, number, and gender.

• We talked about how to use interrogatives in direct questions, indirect questions, and relative clauses.

Ready to practice? Check out our German interrogatives exercises or review the various forms of German wo-compounds with our table! Happy learning!