Кто, что, сколько

The interrogative pronouns кто (who), что (what), сколько (how many/much) change only by cases.

Case	"кто"	"что"	"сколько"
Nominative	кто	что	сколько
Genitive	кого	чего	скольких
Dative	кому	чему	скольким
Accusative	кого	что	сколько
Instrumental	кем	чем	сколькими
Prepositional	о ком	о чём	о скольких

"Who" questions

To form a "who" question use a past, present or future tense singular masculine verb after кто. Note that only the tense of the verb can change in "who" questions. For example:

Question 1 -- past tense, masculime, singular Кто смеялся?  (Who was smiling?)

Possible answers Смеялась девочка. Смеялся мальчик. Смеялись дети. (A girl was smiling. A boy was smiling. Chldren were smiling.)

Question 2 -- present tense, masculine, singular Кто смеётся? (Who is smiling?)

Possible answers Смеётся девочка. Смеётся мальчик. Смеются дети. (A girl is smiling. A boy is smiling. Chldren are smiling.)

"What" questions

Use the interrogative pronoun что followed by a neuter singular verb in the form of the past, present or future tense. Let's say we want to ask about a recent event.

Question -- neuter, singular, past tense Что произошло? (What happened?)

Какой

The interrogative pronoun какой (what kind) is used in exclamatory sentences:

Какой сегодня жаркий день! (What a hot day it is today!)

This pronoun is also used to ask about features and quality:

Какая завтра погода? (What weather is going to be tomorrow?)

Какие книги вы приобрели? (What kind of books did you buy?)

Который

The interrogative pronoun который (what/which) is used to aks about something in a sequence of similar objects. For example, here are the ways to ask about time.

Который час? (What time is it?)

В котором часу? (At what time?)

Чей, чья, чьё, чьи

The pronouns чей, чья, чьё, чьи are used to aks about the owner of an object.

Чья это кепка? (Whose cap is this?)

Чей зонтик? (Whose umbrella is this?)

Сколько

This pronoun is used to ask about the number of things or people.

Сколько жителей в этом городе? (How many residents is there in this city?)

Сколько книг вы прочитали? (How many books did you read?)

The Possessive Pronouns

In the Russian language, the possessive pronouns include words мой (my),твой (familiar your), наш (our), ваш (polite your), свой. The possessive pronouns indicate that things belong to somebody or something else. And you will hear one possessive pronoun or another if you ask a quesion Чей? Чья? Чьё? or Чьи? For example:

Мы любуемся твоей красотой.  Чьей красотой мы любуемся?

Наш город большой.  Чей город большой?

Свои успехи не восхваляй.  Чьи успехи не восхваляй?

Note that English possessive pronouns have two forms: my - mine, her - hers, your - yours. In Russian, there is only one form of possessive pronouns. For instance, both "my" and "mine" are always translated as мой.

You probably have an idea of personal pronouns from our previous lessons. Just recall the third person genitive of personal pronouns (его, её, их). You may now use them like possessive pronouns. For example:

Я буду встречаться с его (её, их) братом.

The possessive pronouns change:

• by number (мой - singular, мои - plural)

• by gender (наш - masculine, наша - feminine)

• by cases (see the tables)