To think most nearly 3 year olds would be able to answer this?

My 3y2m old is just starting to tell us if she is refluxing but only if prompted.
Last month she was ill she went into nursery one day and just curled up in a ball. I had just dropped her off and had kept her at home for breakfast trying to work out if she was ill but she didn't respond to "do you feel poorly" or similar.

I have a memory of having a UTI around aged 6 and I hadn't told my mum that it felt funny when I peed until the GP asked me. The conversation of "why did you tell me" afterwards with my mum has stuck in my mind!

My 3y+2mo can have full conversations and has an excellent vocab but when I ask him what he had for lunch at preschool he says he doesn't know.

My eldest was fully conversing before 2 but you wouldn't have a more sensible answer from him. Kids never want to answer about what they did at nursery/school for some reason. Plus they can identify that something is wrong but not where or what, its too complex at the minute. For example when DS was 4/5 he would say that his stomach was hot and then be sick. He didn't understand that he was nauseated.

My youngest is almost a year older than yours and is speech delayed and wouldn't be able to answer those questions. He has seen the speech and language therapist and the sounds by whatever age that they would expect are a lot later than social media would suggest. https://www.ghc.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/CLST-When_Children_Learn_Sounds.pdf

I couldn’t have got an answer from my dd1. Ask her now and she won’t shut up 😳

😂yes, in this house, my 3yo’s choice of substitute word/ name is “poopoohead”

For absolutely everything.

That sounds very advanced for a 2.5 year old. Are you sure she isn't turning 4 in February?

My boy is 2y10m also. I’m not sure that he would be able to tell me who bit him.

If he was unwell or hurt somewhere I don’t think he’d verbally be able to say where it hurt other than saying leg or arm, he’d probably just point. He did tell me his mouth hurt the other day and I had to ask him to point know specifically where he meant (his back teeth on this occasion).

Now that he's started nursery his language and communication will come on in leaps and bounds as pre-schoolers chatter away all day long!

and nursery staff are amazing with all the stories, songs, rhymes.

I don't think anything is wrong with your child.

My DD is 3 and a half now and has conversations.

At just 3 she wasn't really having full on conversations and that's really normal too. She talked a lot and told you a lot and clearly understood what she was being asked and told, just it wasn't a massive back and forth yet.

Now it's a great back and forth. They all do it in their own times not all just below 3 year old or even 3 year olds are having proper conversations where they answer questions and give elaborate answers. I don't think your child is behind, based on these examples.

Illness, yes, with quite a lot of clarity. But she was very articulate for her age. In doing so she possibly saved her life (2y 9m).

Me: are you ok?
Child: I feel poorly
Me: how do you feel poorly?
Child: my head is ouchy, and points to the side of her head.

It was a brain tumour which needed emergency surgery.

At that age she didn't know any names of friends though, so it would be a no to the first question.

He may just not understand 'who' questions so he's probably just hearing ' who bit you?', so the logical answer is 'yeah'. He is also very unlikely to have learnt the names of kids at nursery so he probably has no idea who but him.

Then 'who did you play with?' - he's interpreting as ' what did you play with' and the answer is 'cars'.

Parts of you hurting and 'who' questions need to be modelled. So if you hurt your finger, you need to make a thing of it ' ouch, I hurt my finger, and point at your finger, put a plaster on.

With the 'who' you can play games hiding teddy behind a cushion - who is behind the cushion? It's teddy! Then when you ask 'who' again, he'll know you are referring to a person other than himself.

I know it sounds very basic but he may have just missed a few of these things. There is SO much to learn!

A lot of those examples in your OP are in the 3-4 age range in a language development milestones chart I’ve got.

Have you considered nuerodivesity/ have there been other behaviours or not hitting milestones etc things that build a bigger picture? If not you can still refer for speech therapy for help. I think my son is on the spectrum and he is and was like that at that age. He is 4.5 now and his speech has come along but can't properly answer questions or talk like your normal 4 year old does

It varies massively. My eldest was more like reception age before we got any meaningful response on what she’d done that day. My youngest seemed like she could answer questions like that from when she was really tiny (even before 2) in reality half the time she was telling you something entirely made up about what she’s been doing or what hurts while sounding plausible.

IME there's a massive range of "normal" speech at that age. Our nephew was really delayed but now he's a bright teen doing very well academically.

If he understands you when you say when you ask him to do things, and if the words he does have are increasing I wouldn't be worried tbh but a conversation with the GP or health visitor is never a bad idea.

Since he's in nursery ask them. They see so many children they have a great feel for what's typical.

Would have been normal for my DS at that age. He's now 3.8 and it's a lot better but sometimes he still really doesn't remember who he played with or how he got hurt, things like that.

I have a child the same age and they can tell me reasonably actually how they hurt themselves, who bit them, who they played with, but sometimes it's hit and miss. I'd say it depends on the consistency.

My eldest talked fluently by 2.5. My youngest would have been similar at 2 yr 10 months but at 3 yr 2 months can suddenly talk in full sentences as you are expecting of your DS. I think they tend to have a leap in language at some point but it varies when. I'd give it a few months before you really worry but maybe talk to nursery about it if you're concerned.

I would expect a three year old to be able to hold a reasonable conversation and answer basic questions.

If he can't do this, I'd go and see your HV and get a referral for speech therapy. There's every chance he'll catch up while you're waiting to be seen, but doesn't hurt to be on the waiting list in case he doesn't.