Now we are going to talk about another question word: "کدام". It means which.
So in order to form a question by "کدام", easily you can just
put "کدام" before the noun you want to be specified about. So for
example, I ask you:
به کدام دانشگاه می روی؟
So I want to be specified about the noun "دانشگاه". So I ask you "to which
university do you go or are you going?"
So as you can see, I have put "کدام" right before the noun I want to specify,
to be specified about, and the answer can just again be like other WH questions. The
response should give you the information about "کدام" and you write in the
place of the question word. So I say
به دانشگاه
Because here we are asking about the "اضافه" of the word "دانشگاه". So I say "به"
and then I write "دانشگاه" and which "دانشگاه". For example,
به دانشگاه تهران می روم.
به کدام دانشگاه می روی؟
به دانشگاه تهران می روم.
Another example:
کدام شهر بزرگتر است؟
Here I want to be specified about the word "شهر". So I
put the question word right behind it and I say "کدام شهر". Which city is
bigger? "کدام شهر بزرگتر است؟" And then you can say Tehran and continuing
the sentence:
تهران بزرگتر است.
کدام شهر بزرگتر است؟
Tehran, because the person you are talking to knows
which cities you are talking about. So just you can specify the noun by saying
Tehran.
کدا م شهر بزرگتر است؟ تهران
Another example:
کدام کلاس را دوست داری؟
So you want to be specified about the noun "کلاس". So you say "کدام". Tell us
which class you like. Which class do you like? But here as you can see, I used
the word "را" which is this kind of direct definite object. Because when we
are talking and together and I am asking, for example, about the class you like, we
know the classes we are talking about. For example, history and chemistry and
physics. And I want to be specified which one you like more. So when it's in the
position of an object, we need to use "را" here. So
کدام کلاس را دوست داری؟
For example:
کلاس تاریخ، history class
Another important point
about the word "کدام" is when it's combined with the word
number one. "کدام یک" is which one. We have this combination.
Whenever you use this combination, then you need to have the preposition "از".
It means from.
کدام یک از شما اینجا بود؟
I'm asking which one of you was
here. Which one of you was here. And you can say:
من اینجا بودم.
You give the
information by using just the word "من":
من اینجا بودم.
or sometimes "کدامیک"
can be without "از". For example I can ask-- let's erase this part.
کدامیک را می خواهی؟
I'm asking which one do you want. So here it's in the place of object
and "کدامیک" has taken the word "را", the sign of direct definite object. So:
کدامیک را می خواهی؟
Which one do you like, and you
can say:
آن را می خواهم.
So the the points about "کدام":
It comes right behind the noun that you want to be
specified about. So you just put it behind that noun. It can be in a
prepositional phrase, as this example: به کدام
To which university are you going?
And the other point is that there can be a combination of "کدام" and number one.
It's "کدامیک". Sometimes it comes withe "از", the preposition "from."
کدامیک از شما اینجا بود؟
Which one of you were here, or without that. And like
other question word, just remember to put it in the place of missing information.