these configurations will be saved for each time you visit this page using this browser
Pro-forms are divided into several categories, according to which part of speech they substitute:
An interrogative pro-form is a pro-form that denotes the (unknown) item in question and may itself fall into any of the above categories.
One of the most salient features of many modern Indo-European languages is that relative pro-forms and interrogative pro-forms, as well as demonstrative pro-forms in some languages, have identical forms. Consider the two different functions of who in "Who's the criminal who did this?" and "Adam is the criminal who did this".
Most other language families do not have this ambiguity and neither do several ancient Indo-European languages. For example, both Latin and Ancient Greek distinguish the relative pro-forms from the interrogative pro-forms.
{| class="wikitable" style="white-space: nowrap"
|-
|+ Table of correlatives
|-
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | interrogative
! colspan="2" | demonstrative
! colspan="5" | quantifier
|-
! proximal
! distal
! existential
! elective
! universal
! negative
! alternative-positive
|-
! colspan="2" | determiner
| which
what
| this (sg.)
these (pl.)
| that (sg.)
those (pl.)
| some
| any
whichever
whichsoever
| every
each
all
| no
| another
|-
! rowspan="4" | pronoun
! human
| who
whom
| this (one) (sg.)
these (ones) (pl.)
| that (one) (sg.)
those (ones) (pl.)
| someone
somebody
| anyone
anybody
whoever
whomever
whosoever
whomsoever
| everyone
everybody
all
| no one
nobody
| another
someone else
somebody else
|-
! nonhuman
| what
| this (one) (sg.)
these (ones) (pl.)
| that (one) (sg.)
those (ones) (pl.)
| something
| anything
whatever
whatsoever
| everything
all
| nothing
| something else
|-
! out of two (dual)
| rowspan="2" | which
| rowspan="2" | this one (sg.)
these (ones) (pl.)
| rowspan="2" | that one (sg.)
those (ones) (pl.)
| one
| either
whichever
whichsoever
| both
| neither
|
|-
! out of many (plural)
| some
one
| any
whichever
whichsoever
| each
all
| none
|
|-
! rowspan="6" | pro-adverb
! location
| where
| here
| there
| somewhere
| anywhere
wherever
wheresoever
| everywhere
| nowhere
| elsewhere
|-
! source
| whence
wherefrom
| hence
| thence
thencefrom
|
| whenceever
whencesoever
|
| nowhence
|
|-
! goal
| whither
whereto
whereinto
whereunto
| hither
| thither
| somewhither
| anywhither
whithersoever
|
| nowhither
|
|-
! time
| when
| now
| then
| sometime
| anytime
whenever
whensoever
| always
everywhen
| never
|
|-
! manner
| how
whereby
| thus
hereby
| thereby
| somehow
| anyhow
however
howsoever
| everyway
| noway
noways
nowise
nohow (col.)
| otherwise
|-
! reason
| why
wherefore
|
| therefore
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|}
Some languages may have more categories. See demonstrative.
Note that some categories are regular and some are not. They may be regular or irregular also depending on languages. The following chart shows comparison between English, French (irregular) and Japanese (regular):
{| class="wikitable" style="white-space: nowrap"
|-
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | interrogative
! colspan="2" | quantifier
|-
! existential !! negative
|-
! human
| who
qui
dare
| someone
quelqu'un
dareka
| no one
personne
daremo
|-
! nonhuman
| what
que
nani
| something
quelque chose
nanika
| nothing
rien
nanimo
|-
! location
| where
où
doko
| somewhere
quelque part
dokoka
| nowhere
nulle part
dokomo
|}
(Note that "daremo", "nanimo" and "dokomo" are universal quantifiers with positive verbs.)
Some languages do not distinguish interrogative and indefinite pro-forms. In Mandarin, "Shéi yǒu wèntí?" means either "Who has a question?" or "Does anyone have a question?", depending on context.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
![Phillip Island is an Australian island located about 140 km away from Melbourne, Victoria. Named after the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of Western Port. The island area is approximately 10,000 hectares. It is 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres at its widest.[1] It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire. A 640 metre concrete bridge connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Ne](http://web.archive.org./web/20110131230802im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/66/51/c97bde43538f6510a8d3bb1b3227_grande.jpg "Phillip Island is an Australian island located about 140 km away from Melbourne, Victoria. Named after the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of Western Port. The island area is approximately 10,000 hectares. It is 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres at its widest.[1] It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire. A 640 metre concrete bridge connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Ne")
![Phillip Island is an Australian island located about 140 km away from Melbourne, Victoria. Named after the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of Western Port. The island area is approximately 10,000 hectares. It is 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres at its widest.[1] It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire. A 640 metre concrete bridge connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Ne](http://web.archive.org./web/20110131230802im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/66/51/c97bde43538f6510a8d3bb1b3227_thumb.jpg "Phillip Island is an Australian island located about 140 km away from Melbourne, Victoria. Named after the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, Phillip Island forms a natural breakwater for the shallow waters of Western Port. The island area is approximately 10,000 hectares. It is 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres at its widest.[1] It has 97 km of coastline and is part of the Bass Coast Shire. A 640 metre concrete bridge connects the mainland town San Remo with the island town Ne")
