What Part of Speech is "What"?

To determine the part of speech of "what",we have to know the types of parts of speech.There are eight types of parts of speech.


These are noun,pronoun,verb,adverb,preposition, conjunction and interjection.Remember that determiners are a special type of adjective.

To find out the part of  speech of "what",we need to  remember that a single word in different sentences can functions as different parts of speech.




Now analyse the following example:



●You want a book.

●What do you want?

Explanation:In the above sentence, the part of speech of "what" is a pronoun.Here "you" is a subject ,want is a verb, and "what" is the object of the verb "want."What" has replace the noun "book".So,here"what" is a pronoun.



Now consider the following example:

●What time are they leaving?

Explanation:Here"what" has been used as a determiner.Remember that a determiner is a special kind of adjectives.An adjective can modify a noun before sitting that noun.Similar,a determiner can specify a noun before sitting that noun.Here "time"is a noun and "what "is specifies the noun time.So,"what " is a determiner here.

Structure of Noun Phrase:


●Determiner+Adjective +Noun


Look at the following example:

●What a horrible smell!

Explanation:Here "a" is a determiner.Before  a " what" has been used.We know that before determiner a pre-determiner can come.So,"what" here is a predeterminer.

Here is the sentence with parts of speech of what:

He can't decide what to buy Liz for her birthday.

◆He=pronoun


◆can=a verb,modal verb

●decide=a verb

●what= meaning, the thing (s)that, a pronoun

●buy=verb

◆to buy =infinitive,a type of verb


◆birthday=noun

●her=derterminer
◆for=preposition



◆Phrase structure:


●Noun Phrase=Determiner +Noun=her birthday




●for her birthday=Prepositional Phrase=Preposition +Noun phrase

◆Verb Phrase=can't decide