Wh-Questions: The Question Word Stays In Place

English builds a wh-question by ripping the question word out of its slot and hauling it to the front of the sentence, then propping up the gap with "do": You eat what becomes *What do you eat?* Korean does neither of those things. A Korean wh-question is just an ordinary statement with a question word sitting exactly where the answer would sit — plus the same sentence ending you already use. Once you stop trying to move the wh-word, these questions become the easiest kind to build.

This page teaches the structure of wh-questions. The meanings of the individual question words — 누구 (who), 뭐 (what), 어디 (where), 언제 (when), 왜 (why), 어떻게 (how) — are covered under question words: who and what and its sibling pages. Here we care about where they go.

The question word fills its normal slot

Korean is a subject–object–verb language, and a wh-question leaves that order completely untouched. The question word simply occupies the argument slot it is asking about. Compare a plain statement with its wh-question:

In the statement, 밥 ("rice") is the object, sitting right before the verb. In the question, 뭐 ("what") drops into that identical object slot. Nothing moves; nothing is added. The verb 먹어요 doesn't change at all. This is the whole trick, and it repeats for every question word:

Notice that in 누구 만나요? the question word 누구 sits in the object slot (where the person you meet would go), and in 어디 가요? the word 어디 sits in the place slot before the movement verb. The wh-word lives wherever its answer would live.

Subjects: 누가, not fronting

When you ask about the subject, the question word goes in the subject slot at the very front — but that is because subjects come first in a normal sentence, not because the wh-word was moved there.

Here 누가 ("who," as subject) sits where any subject sits. Note the special form: "who" is 누구, but as a subject with the particle 가 it contracts to 누가, never ×누구가. This is one of the few fixed shapes to memorize — everywhere else 누구 stays 누구.

No "do," no dummy subject

English needs the auxiliary "do" to form most questions (What *do you eat?, Where **did he go?*). Korean has no such word and needs none — the plain verb ending already turns the sentence into a question. There is likewise no equivalent of the English dummy subject: you do not insert a pronoun for "you." Korean is happily pro-drop, so the subject is simply omitted when context makes it clear.

These are complete, natural questions with no subject word and no auxiliary. Adding a word for "you" (당신) does not make them more correct — it makes them sound stiff, distant, or even confrontational, which is the opposite of what a beginner intends.

The same in-place principle holds no matter how long the sentence gets. Tense, future marking, and adverbs all stack up as usual around the untouched question word:

The time phrase (오늘 저녁에, 주말에) leads, the question word sits in its slot, and the verb closes the sentence — exactly the order a plain statement would take.

Intonation: falling for wh, rising for yes/no

There is one thing your voice must do that word order does not show. A wh-question normally ends with a falling pitch, while a yes/no question rises. This matters because the very same string of words can be either kind of question depending only on the melody. 뭐 먹어요? with a falling contour asks "What are you eating?" (tell me the food). The identical 뭐 먹어요? with a rising contour asks "Are you eating something?" — a yes/no question expecting 네 or 아니요, where 뭐 is now the indefinite "something."

That double life of every question word gets its own treatment on question word or 'something'?, and the pitch contours themselves are laid out on statement vs question intonation. For now, just know the rule: wh-question, fall; yes/no question, rise.

Two question words in one sentence

The in-place principle has a payoff English cannot easily match: because nothing moves, you can leave two question words each sitting in its own slot, and the sentence stays perfectly grammatical. English struggles here — "Who did what?" is about as far as it comfortably goes — but Korean handles it as a matter of course, each wh-word parked where its answer belongs.

In 누가 뭐 했어요?, 누가 sits in the subject slot and 뭐 in the object slot — exactly where a subject and an object always go. No fronting, no reordering; the SOV skeleton simply carries two unknowns at once. This falls straight out of the rule that question words do not move, and it is one more reason to stop thinking of Korean questions in terms of English wh-fronting.

Common Mistakes

1. Fronting the wh-word past an overt subject. Out of English habit, learners drag the question word to the absolute front even when a subject is present. In Korean the wh-word stays in its slot after the subject.

2. Inserting an overt "you." English forces a subject, so learners add 당신. Real Korean drops it; 당신 to a stranger sounds cold or aggressive.

3. Writing ×누구가 for the subject "who." "Who" as subject contracts to 누가; the uncontracted ×누구가 is not standard.

4. Adding a word for "do." There is no auxiliary in a Korean question. The verb ending carries the question all by itself, so any extra "do"-like verb is redundant.

Key Takeaways

• A Korean wh-question is a normal SOV sentence with a question word in the answer's slot — no fronting.
• No do-support and no dummy subject. The verb ending makes it a question; drop "you."
• "Who" as a subject is 누가 (from 누구 + 가), never ×누구가.
• Control your intonation: wh-questions fall, yes/no questions rise — the same words can be either.