what
pron.the word you use to ask for information about a thing or an action. You use it when you do not know what something is or what is happening.
pron.an interrogative pronoun used to request specific information about an object, event, or situation. It functions as the subject, object, or complement in a clause.
“What is your favorite color?”
“The manager asked what the team needed to finish the project by Friday afternoon.”
“In philosophical inquiry, the question of what constitutes a meaningful life often leads to a discussion of personal values versus societal expectations.”
Functions as an interrogative pronoun or a relative pronoun; when used as a relative pronoun, it often means 'the thing that'.
In indirect questions or noun clauses, the subject must come before the verb.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwat Proto-West Germanic *hwat Old English hwæt Middle English what English what From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic hwat, from Proto-Germanic hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European kʷód (“what”), neuter form of kʷós (“who”). Cognate with Scots what, whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”). Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Singaporean and Malaysian English is analogous to Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For Mandarin speakers Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, meaning question words do not move to the front of the sentence. Learners often follow the Mandarin word order (SVO) to produce structures like 'You like what?' instead of moving 'what' to the clause-initial position.
Mandarin speakers often use 'how to call' (怎么叫 zěnme jiào) when asking for the name of an object, leading to the error 'How do you call this?' instead of 'What do you call this?' or 'What is this called?'
For Japanese speakers Japanese phonology lacks the /w/ sound before vowels other than /a/; speakers often substitute the labio-velar approximant with the close back compressed vowel /ɯ/, leading to /hɯᵝotːo/ for 'what'.
Japanese wh-words do not move to the front of the sentence (wh-in-situ), so learners frequently place 'what' in the object position—'You like what?'—mirroring the SOV order of 'Nani ga suki desu ka' (何が好きですか).
The Japanese phrase 'Dō omoimasu ka' (どう思いますか) uses 'dō' (how) to ask for an opinion, frequently resulting in the error 'How do you think about...?' instead of 'What do you think about...?'.