In Persian the five W’s and H are three ch’s (چ) and three k’s (ک), as follows:

Except for چه, which has a colloquial variation as چی, the rest of these adverbs are the same in colloquial Persian.

چرا is from چه plus را, a post positioned direct object marker in New Persian (as in the accusative), while in Classical Persian it was an object marker for accusative as well as dative (that is, direct and indirect object).

In چطور we are dealing with a hybrid morpheme combining the Persian adverb چه ‘what’ and the Arabic loanword طور towr (Arab. tawr) ‘manner.’ It literally means ‘in what manner?’; that is, ‘how?’.

In colloquial Persianچطور also means ‘how come?’:

[tag resources interrogatives_07]چطور حالا اومدی؟[/tag]
cetowr hālā umadi?(or, āmade-yi)
“How come you’ve come (showed up) now?”

In addition, there is a compound with چطور as چطور شد…:

[tag resources interrogatives_08]چطور شد حالا اومدی؟ [/tag]
cetowr šod hālā umadi ?(or, āmadi)
“How come have you come (showed up) now?”

Another compound is برای چه barā-ye ce ‘what for, how come, why.’ If it follows the object of the sentence, it means that the speaker is looking for the function of the object of the sentence in their affair; if it precedes the object of the sentence, it means that the speaker expected the object of the sentence to be a different one or not be included at all. In this case the object takes the stress.

Compare the following sentences:

[tag resources interrogatives_09]او را برای چه با خود آورده ای؟[/tag]
u rā barā-ye ce bā xod āvarde-yi?
“Why have you brought him/her with you?”

Here the reason for the object of the sentence being there is of importance.

[tag resources interrogatives_10]برای چه او را با خود آورده ای؟[/tag]
barā-ye ce u rā bā xod āvarde-yi?
“Why/how come have you brought him/her with you?”

Here the object of the sentence is of concern: “Why this one and not another?”, or “Why did you have to bring him/her along?”, or “Did you really have to bring him/her along?”.

However, in colloquial dialect, as long as the stress is on the object, any of these two notions may be expressed/understood.

Finally notice that the Persian question mark is a mirror image of the English mark; of course, this is because Persian is written from right to left.

Simple Samples:

[tag resources interrogatives_11]شما کی هستید؟[/tag]
šomā ki hastid?
“Who are you?”

[tag resources interrogatives_12]کی آمدید؟ [/tag]
key āmadid?
“When did you come?”

[tag resources interrogatives_13]کجایید؟[/tag]
kojāyid?
“Where are you?”

[tag resources interrogatives_14]این چه است (چیست)؟[/tag]
in ci ast (cist)?
“What is this?”

[tag resources interrogatives_15]چرا رفتید؟[/tag]
cerā rafti?
“Why did you go?”

[tag resources interrogatives_16]چطورید؟[/tag]
cetowrid?
Plural/formal: “How are you?”