Questions in Spanish
Spanish
Stefan published
about 5 years ago
Genesis Diaz published
about 5 years ago
Hola! Sure, let me quickly explain you how to use it 😀
These are the main question words in Spanish:
As you can see Qué and Cuál have the same word in English What, but they both differ in meaning. Does it seem confusing right?. Do not worry I will explain you a litlle bit more about the use of these words.
(1) Use Qué in Spanish if the word is preceed by a noun or the verb "be". For example:
¿Qué comida comes? What food are you eating?
¿Qué estas leyendo? What are you reading?
(2) Use Cuál to ask for specific information to question similar to the above mentioned. For example:
¿Cuál es tu comida favorita? What is your favorite food?
When you want to ask when something occurs, you must use Cuándo. For example:
¿Cuándo viniste de España? When did you come from Spain?
¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday?
There are two ways of using this word. With and without accent mark. Como without accent is equivalent to as and like in English however Cómo with accent mark is used for questions. Example:
¿Cómo estas? How are you?
¿Cómo te sientes hoy? How do you feel today?
Before teaching you about questions with Por qué in Spanish, I will quickly explain you an important fact about this word.
There are four Porques in Spanish (Por que, Por qué, Porque, Porqué), and as a native speaker it is easier to pronunce these four words and use them propertly when I am speaking, but when it comes to writing them, it is a different story,
So, do not feel like you are lost in this.
As you can see the one that is used for questions is Por qué. What differenciates this word from the others is that this is made up of two words with an accent above the é. Example:
¿Por qué viniste tarde? Why did you come late?
¿Por qué no comes? Why don´t you eat?
Quién is the equivalent of Who in English. its plural is Quiénes therefore you should match the number of the noun with the question word you will use. For example:
Singular
¿Quién eres? Who are you?
¿Quién vino a mi casa? Who did come to my house?
Plural
¿Quiénes son estos chicos? Who are these boys?
¿Quiénes irán a la fiesta? Who will go to the party?
It is used when asking from a set of things or specific information. For example:
¿Cuál es tu carro? Which one is your car?
¿Cuál es la mochila que mas te gusta? Which is the backpack you like the most?
This is the Spanish word for when in English. It is often used in the same way as in English.
¿Dónde vives? Where do you live?
¿Dónde estan las llaves? Where are the keys?
Quick note: In Spanish question words always have an accent mark and the sentences have two questions marks actually. One is at the beginning of the sentence and one at the end.