Learn English – a word to describe: Who, What, Where, When

single-word-requests

I'm looking for a word to describe: Who, What, Where, When.
I'm using these words when something has changed and I need to keep track of who did it, when he did it, what he did and where he did it.

Unfortunately I do not know if there is a word to describe this.

I'm not looking for the 5 W's or 'wh' words. I'm trying to find something similar to 'interrogative word' except in my case it's not an interrogation.

Best Answer

interrogatives

An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as what, when, where, who, whom, why, and how.

From Wikipedia

Now I know that you said that "in your case it's not an interrogation", but interrogatives and an interrogation (i.e. an aggressive interrogation) are entirely seperate, they just share the same name.

This becomes clear when you ponder upon the definition of interrogatives from the Cambridge Dictionary:

a word or sentence used when asking a question

and

[the interrogative]: the form of a sentence that is used for asking questions

From the Cambridge Dictionary

Here are the different forms of the interrogative (wh- words, in your case) from Wikipedia:

Wh-questions

Interrogative words in English include:

interrogative determiner

which, what whose (personal possessive determiner)

interrogative pro-form interrogative pronoun

who, whom, whose (personal)

what, which

interrogative pro-adverb

where (location)

whither (goal)

whence (source)

when (time)

how (manner)

why (reason)

whether and whatsoever (choice between alternatives)

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