Кто and Что: Who and What

Кто ("who") and что ("what") are the two basic question words of Russian, and they split the world the way Russian grammar always does: кто for animate beings (people, animals — anything you'd call "who"), что for inanimate things and abstractions. The point English speakers miss is that these are not frozen little words — they are pronouns that decline through all six cases, and in a question the word appears in whatever case the verb or preposition requires. "Who(m) do you help?" puts кто into the dative (Кому́ ты помога́ешь?) because помога́ть governs the dative. Master the table, and you can build any wh-question in the language.

Declension of кто and что

Both are singular and have no gender of their own, but they decline fully. Memorise them as a pair — the endings rhyme.

Two spelling notes worth pinning down: что is pronounced shto (the ч is read as ш here, an old irregularity), and the prepositional чём carries the dots — it is чём, stressed, never чем in that case.

Building questions: the case follows the verb

Here is the engine of the whole page. To ask a wh-question, you take кто or что and put it in the case the verb (or preposition) governs — exactly the case the answer would be in. Run through the cases:

• Nominative (subject): Кто звони́л? ("Who called?") — the caller is the subject.
• Genitive (after a genitive verb or preposition): Чего́ ты бои́шься? ("What are you afraid of?") — боя́ться governs the genitive.
• Dative (recipient / dative verb): Кому́ ты помога́ешь? ("Whom do you help?") — помога́ть governs the dative.
• Accusative (direct object): Кого́ ты ви́дишь? ("Whom do you see?").
• Instrumental (means / instrumental verb): Чем ты пи́шешь? ("What are you writing with?").
• Prepositional (after о, в, на): О чём вы говори́те? ("What are you talking about?").

The English parallel — who vs whom, what about → about what — is exactly this case logic, but English has largely abandoned it. Russian preserves it rigorously: the question word "knows" its grammatical role and dresses accordingly.

Agreement: кто is masculine, что is neuter

When кто or что is the subject, the verb has to agree with something — but these pronouns have no real gender or number. Russian fixes this by convention:

• кто takes masculine singular agreement, even when the real answer is a woman or a crowd: Кто пришёл? ("Who came?") uses пришёл (masc), never пришла́ or пришли́.
• что takes neuter singular agreement: Что случи́лось? ("What happened?") uses случи́лось (neuter).

Кто and что in relative clauses: тот, кто and то, что

The same two words head relative ("the one who / that which") clauses, paired with a form of тот/то in the main clause:

• тот, кто — "the one who / whoever" (animate): Тот, кто опозда́ет, бу́дет ждать ("Whoever's late will have to wait").
• то, что — "that which / what" (inanimate): Я не по́нял то, что ты сказа́л ("I didn't understand what you said").

Each word independently takes the case its own clause requires, so you often get two different cases in one sentence:

How this differs from English

English wh-words barely inflect — only the relic pair who/whom survives, and most speakers drop even that. So an English speaker's instinct is to reach for "who" or "what" in one frozen shape and let prepositions and word order do the rest ("Who are you giving it to?"). Russian does the opposite: it leaves the preposition up front and inflects the pronoun (Кому́ ты э́то даёшь?). The habit to build is: first decide what role the missing piece plays — subject? object? recipient? instrument? — then pick the matching case of кто/что. Once that reflex is in place, Russian questions are mechanical.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• кто = "who" (animate); что = "what" (inanimate) — the animate/inanimate split runs through the whole pronoun system.
• Both decline fully: кто/кого́/кому́/кого́/кем/ком and что/чего́/чему́/что/чем/чём. (Spelling: что is said shto; the prepositional is чём with dots.)
• In a question, the pronoun takes the case the verb or preposition governs (Кому́ помога́ешь? — dative; Чем пи́шешь? — instrumental; О чём? — prepositional).
• Fixed agreement: кто → masculine singular (Кто пришёл?), что → neuter singular (Что случи́лось?), regardless of the real answer.
• As relatives, тот, кто ("the one who") and то, что ("that which") — each word independently in its own clause's case.