Confusing questions: What colour dress is she wearing?

[BlueEyedGirlpl]

Hi everyone!

I've got 2 little question.
Is correct the 1st question or is it better to say it in another way?

1.What colour dress is she wearing?
2. What is the colour of the dress she is wearing?

And, which version is better when it comes to questions like these:

1.How is your mother feeling?
2.How is feeling your mother?

I hope someone could explain it to me.
Thanks in advance and BTW, great page! :D

[Alan]

Hi Blue_eyed_girlpl,

Your first question:

[Guest]

.

[Alan]

Well, yes. The point is whether you want to be precise or not. A police detective asking a specific question would ask:

[Blue_eyed_girlpl]

thank you, as you could see I have some problems with forming questions not only while doing some tests but also in practice :oops:

[Harini_Hr]

1.Which color dress is she wearing?
2. What colour dress is she wearing ?

Can you please let me know which of the above Q's are right and what is the difference.

[Anchorman]

Hi Harini,
Answer 2 is better but answer 1 is commonly used in modern conversational English, whether we like it or not. In this situation, if we use 'which' it implies we have a limited choice e.g. 'Which do you prefer, tea or coffee?' However, 'what' implies a much wider choice (in your example the dress could be any colour).
Hope this helps.