Asking questions in Spanish - Easy Learning Grammar Spanish

1   Asking a question by making your voice go up

• If you are expecting the answer yes or no, there is a very simple way of asking a question. You keep the word order exactly as it would be in a normal sentence but you turn it into a question by making your voice go up at the end.

• When the subject (the person or thing doing the action) of the verb is a noun, pronoun or name it can be given before the verb, just as in an ordinary sentence. But you turn the statement into a question by making your voice go up at the end.

2   Asking a question by changing word order

• When the subject of the verb is specified, another even more common way of asking questions is to change the word order so that the verb comes BEFORE the subject instead of after it.

• Note that the position of object pronouns is not affected.

• For more information on Word order with object pronouns, see Personal pronouns: direct object, Personal pronouns: indirect object and Order of object pronouns.

3   Asking a question by using a question word

• Question words are words like when, what, who, which, where and how that are used to ask for information. In Spanish, all question words have an accent on them.

• For more information on question words, see Interrogative adjectives on Interrogative adjectives and Interrogative pronouns on Interrogative pronouns.

• When the question starts with a question word that isn’t the subject of the verb, the noun or pronoun (if given) that is the subject of the verb goes AFTER it.

4   Which question word to use?

• qué or cuál or cuáles can be used to mean which:

• always use qué before a noun

• otherwise use cuál (singular) or cuáles (plural)

• quién or quiénes can be used to mean who:

• use quién when asking about one person

• use quiénes when asking about more than one person

• Note that you need to put the personal a before quién and quiénes when it acts as an object.

• For more information on Personal a, see Prepositions.

• de quién or de quiénes can be used to mean whose:

• use de quién when there is likely to be one owner

• use de quiénes when there is likely to be more than one owner

• Note that the structure in Spanish is the equivalent of Whose is this coat?/Whose are these coats? Don’t try putting ¿de quién? or ¿de quiénes? immediately before a noun.

• qué, cómo, cuál and cuáles can all be used to mean what although qué is the most common translation:

• use cómo or qué when asking someone to repeat something that you didn’t hear properly

• use ¿cuál es ... ? and ¿cuáles son ... ? to mean what is ... ? and what/are ... ? when you aren’t asking for a definition

• use ¿qué es ... ? and ¿qué son ... ? to mean what is ... ? and what are ... ? when you are asking for a definition

• always use qué to mean what before another noun

5   Negative questions

• When you want to make a negative question, put no before the verb in the same way that you do in statements (non-questions).

• You can also use o no at the end of a question in the same way that we can ask or not in English.

6   Short questions

• In English we sometimes check whether our facts and beliefs are correct by putting isn’t it?, don’t they?, are they? and so on at the end of a comment. In Spanish, you can add ¿verdad? in the same way.

• You can also use ¿no?, especially after positive comments.

7   Answering questions

• To answer a question which requires a yes or no answer, just use sí or no.

• You can also often answer sí or no followed by the verb in question. In negative answers this may mean that you say no twice.