Latvian is fun when it comes to questions.

There are lots of different **question words** and it seems like almost all of
them **start with a K**. (They don't all though. There's _vai_ and _cik_ , for
example.)

If you think that's weird, look at English - lots of ours start with _Wh_.
Same concept and execution as our _" Who? What? When? Where? Why?"_

**Some** of them, notably the ones that correspond to the different forms,
**expect an answer in a certain form**. For example, **kas** and **ko** both
translate to **what/who** in English, but with an important difference:
**kas** expects a _**nominative**_ answer and **ko** expects an
_**accusative**_ answer.

_Nominative_ generally means the _subject_ of a sentence. _Accusative_ means
the _direct object_ of the sentence. A _direct object_ is _something that is
acted upon_ by the verb. More on this later.

The most common question words are:

**Kas?** -- What? Who? -- Asks about the subject

**Kā?** -- Whose? Of whose?

**Kam?** -- To whom / what / which? For whom / what / which?

**Ko?** -- What? Who? -- Asks about the direct object

**Ar ko?** -- With what? With whom?

**Kur?** -- Where?

**Kāpēc?** -- Why?

**Kad?** -- When?

So, for example, I could ask: **" Kur ir pele?"** _[Where is the mouse?]_
Because **kur** **is** asked for the **locative** form, I would answer in the
locative: **" Kaķī." **_[In the cat.]_

**Endings give so much information** - just one word, kaķī, gives me three in
English when translating. **Don 't be afraid to speak simply, you're more
likely to be correct.**

But if you answered: "Kaķis." it would make no sense at all! You would be
answering along the lines of "the cat" and forgetting all about the important
part of the question: WHERE is the mouse? The Latvian you're speaking to would
be waiting patiently for you to get around to finishing your sentence, perhaps
with a tale of a daring and adventurous mouse escaping the cat.