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I want to create 6 wh-questions(3 of them with where, 3 of them with who), but I have some serious confusions. In Turkish, You can easily create sentences like below, but in English, I couldn't set up the logic.

"I think" phrases in the begining of paragraphes are my thoughts about how I can create wh-questions, If they are wrong please write its right version.

(In English normally, adding prepositions end of the wh-questions is weird for native speakers.But I stuck in this situation, I'll be pleasured if you help, thank you)

  1. I think:"Where did you draw to?"(For exm. There is a black board and the man has drawn a sign on it but we couldn't see. We want to ask where the sign is.)(In Turkish:Nereye çizdin?)

  2. I think:"Where did you draw in?"(The man has drawn a picture and we want to ask where the man is in while drawing the picture (It can be a country, city) )(In Turkish:Nerede çizdin?)

  3. I think:"Where did you draw?"(We are looking at the landscape picture and asking where that place is ( it can be a country,city) )(In Turkish:Nereyi çizdin?)

  4. I think:"Who did you draw for?"(He has drawn a picture and we want to ask: You drew this picture and who for? Who wanted you to draw)(In Turkish:Kime çizdin?)

  5. I think:"Who did you draw in this picture?"(He has drawn a woman and we want to ask who the woman in picture is)(In Turkish:Kimi çizdin?)

  6. I think:"Who did you draw at?"(The man who draws pictures stays in different places of his friends. We want to ask which friend he stays at, while drawing)(In Turkish:Kimde çizdin?)

(And lastly,If we don't add prepositions end of the sentence, how can we know the question's meaning (I mean, If we use "where did you draw?" for all of first 3 sentences above then how can we know the aim of where question tag (to, at or him ...) )

2 Answers 2

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I'm afraid none of these is very idiomatic. We could say "Where did you draw it?" for the first three (it being the picture).

For (2) we could also say "Where were you when you drew it?"

For (3), "Where is that a picture of?" or "Where is the scene/view in the picture?"

(4) "Who did you draw it for?"

(5) Who is the person/woman/lady in the picture?"

(6) We can't say "Who at?" to mean "at whose house?". You would have to say something like "Who were you staying with when you drew that?"

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  • Your answer is quite explanatory, thank you. But if we used "Where did you draw it?" in first 3 of them(like you said), how would we realise the meaning of the sentence?(to, at, or it) Aug 19, 2021 at 17:55
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    We would only know from the context. Aug 19, 2021 at 18:00
  • I understood, thank you so much dear Kate. Aug 19, 2021 at 18:28
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It is worth addressing the other aspect of the question.

Note that there is no actual rule that you can't use, or end sentences with, prepositions, in questions or otherwise. Some "style guides" misguidedly suggested otherwise, but it was based on the idea that English should be more like Latin, where you can't end sentences with prepositions (but that was structural - in Latin, there's no way to do it in the first place).

Some examples of perfectly acceptable English questions that end with prepositions:

  • "Where are you driving to?"
  • "Which target are you aiming at?"
  • "Which box did you put it in?"
  • "What did you draw it for?"

The questions you posed are mostly not idiomatic, but this isn't due to the preposition; instead, it's due to mismatched preposition and question.

For example, in your first example, "Where did you draw it to?", the problem is that "drawing to" isn't something that one says in English (at least, not in this context). The nearest match would be "What did you draw it on?" - you draw ON things, not TO them. You can ask "Where did you draw it?", but as Kate points out in her answer (and you correctly anticipated), this could mean any of the first three - it's vague, and must be understood by context...

In most circumstances, "Where did you draw it?" would be interpreted to mean "What location/country/etc were you in when you drew it?", though.

When it comes down to it, it's about using the right preposition, where it's needed.

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  • Thank you, your comment is so explanatory. Aug 24, 2021 at 16:04

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