Authors: Julie Gutin
The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (31 page)
ESSENTIAL
In Spanish, it’s not possible to add a question to the end of a statement by repeating the pronoun and verb in the negative (“isn’t he?” “aren’t we?” “don’t you?” and so on). These can all be translated into Spanish with a generic question phrase like
¿no es así?
And, finally, you can ask questions by using question words like
¿qué?
(what?),
¿cómo?
(how?),
¿cuándo?
(when?),
¿dónde?
(where?),
¿cuál?
(which), and
¿quién?
(who?).
¿Dónde está la florería?
Where is the florist’s shop located?
¿Quién es la chica con los pantalones blancos?
Who is the girl in white pants?
Yes, No, or Maybe
For the first three groups of questions, the expected answer may be
sí
(yes),
no
(no), or any of the words we might translate as “maybe”:
quizá
(or
quizás
),
tal vez,
and
a lo mejor.
Another way of saying “maybe” is with a verb phrase—
puede que
or
puede ser que.
Note that the clause the follows will be in the subjunctive mood.
Let’s look at some examples of questions and answers. Let’s say the question is:
¿Es Londres la capital de Inglaterra?
Is London the capital of England?
Here are some appropriate responses:
Sí, Londres es la capital de Inglaterra.
Yes, London is the capital of England.
No, Londres no es la capital de Inglaterra. Es la capital del
Reino Unido.
No, London isn’t the capital of England. It’s the capital of the United Kingdom.
FACT
Many of the question words also have non-question meanings. For example,
que
means “that” and
para que
means “so that
.
” In Spanish writing, the question words are distinguished with the use of an accent mark. For example,
qué
means “what?” and
que
is “that.”
Tal vez Londres es la capital de Inglaterra, no estoy seguro.
Maybe London is the capital of England, I’m not sure.
No sé. Quizás París es la capital de Inglaterra.
I don’t know. Maybe Paris is the capital of England.
Puede ser que Londres sea la capital de Inglaterra.
Maybe (it’s possible) that London is the capital of England.
Question Words
Journalists are taught that to write a good story, they must answer the five W questions: who, what, where, when, and why. Let’s get acquainted with the Spanish question words (also known as interrogatives) that are the equivalent of these, plus a few others.
Qué—
What’s Going On?
To ask “what?” use the question word
¿qué?
¿Qué es esto?
What is this?
¿Qué tipo de corte de pelo prefieres?
What type of haircut do you prefer?
¿Qué?
may be used in conjunction with a preposition:
| ¿con qué? | how? with what? |
| ¿de qué? | of what? from what? |
| ¿para qué? | why? for what purpose? |
| ¿por qué? | why? |
In Spanish there’s no separate word for “why?” Instead, you can use either
¿para qué?
or
¿por qué?
The first of the two is used to ask “for what purpose?” while the second one is a more traditional form of “why?” Compare:
¿Para qué estás aquí?
Why are you here? (For what purpose are you here?)
¿Por qué estás aquí?
Why are you here? (What’s the reason?)
Quién—
Look Who’s Talking
There are two forms of the question “who?” in Spanish:
¿quién?
(singular) and
¿quiénes?
(plural):
¿Quién es el presidente de los Estados Unidos?
Who is the president of the United States?
¿Quiénes son los líderes del equipo?
Who are the team leaders?
ESSENTIAL
Just as “why” is really a combination of “for” and “what”
(¿por qué?),
“whose” is a combination of “of” and “who”
(¿de quién?).
Since Spanish doesn’t form possessives with ’s, the answer to the question
¿de quién?
is always
de
+ possessor:
¿De quién son estos libros? Esos libros son de
María.
(Whose books are these? Those books are Maria’s.)
Other question words based on
¿quién?
and
¿quiénes?
are:
| ¿a quién? | whom? (singular) |
| ¿a quiénes? | whom? (plural) |
| ¿con quién? | with whom? (singular) |
| ¿con quiénes? | with whom? (plural) |
| ¿de quién? | whose? (singular) |
| ¿de quiénes? | whose? (plural) |
¿A quién debo contactar para conseguir la información?
Whom should I contact to get the information?
¿De quiénes son estos libros?
Whose books are these?
Dónde—
Where It’s At
The question “where?” is
¿dónde?
in Spanish. This question word is used to ask about location of a person or thing and is often used with the verb
estar
(to be):
¿Dónde están los zapatos rojos de tacón alto?
Where are the red high-heeled shoes?
When the verb of the question is a verb of motion, like
ir
(to go) or
caminar
(to walk), use the question word
¿adónde?
(to where?):
¿Adónde van los chicos?
Where are the boys going?
¿Adónde camina aquella gente?
Where are those people walking?
In
adónde,
the
a
represents “to,” so the questions in the last examples are really “To where are the boys going?” and “To where are those people walking?” Other question phrases that may be formed with
dónde
are:
| ¿de dónde? | from where? |
| ¿hacia dónde? | toward where? |
| ¿para dónde? | toward where? |
Cuánto—
How Much and How Many
In English, there are two question phrases that may be used when asking about quantity. If you’re asking about quantifiable things (things that you can count, like apples or chairs or doctors), the right question is “how many?” If you’re asking about unquantifiable things (water, money, time), you’ll ask “how much?”
In Spanish, both questions are translated as variants
¿cuánto?
If you mean “how many?” the question word is plural and must agree with the gender of the objects being counted. That means you’ve got two options:
¿cuántos?
and
¿cuántas?
If the question is “how much,” the question word has to be in its singular form, so the two options are
¿cuánto?
and
¿cuánta?
Here are a few examples:
¿Cuánto tiempo tienes para mí?
How much time do you have for me?
¿Cuánta energía tienes para continuar?
How much energy do you have to continue?
¿Cuántos amigos te visitaron?
How many friends visited you?
¿Cuántas muñecas tienes para jugar?
How many dolls do you have to play with?
In the previous examples, the question word
cuánto
was used as an adjective—it modified
tiempo, energía, amigos,
and
muñecas.
But
cuánto
can also be used on its own as a pronoun:
¿Cuánto cuestan los tomates?
How much are the tomatoes?
In this case,
cuánto
is not the adjective of
dinero
(money)— instead, it replaces it.
ALERT
When
cuánto
is used as a pronoun, it does not have to reflect the gender and number of the noun it replaces—regardless of the thing or things being asked about, it always retains the –o ending.
Cuál—
Which Is It, Anyway?
“Which?” in Spanish has two versions, a singular and a plural:
¿cuál?
and
¿cuáles?
However,
cuál/cuáles
and “which” aren’t necessarily equivalent. When “which?” is used as an adjective before a noun, the correct translation is
¿qué?
¿Qué tipo de tela prefieres?
Which kind of fabric do you prefer?
¿Qué frutas te gusta comer?
Which fruit do you like to eat?
On the other hand, sometimes
cuál/cuáles
is needed when a good English translation calls for “what?”
¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
What (which) day is it today?
¿Cuál es la capital de Perú?
What is the capital of Peru?
Cómo
and
Cuándo—
How and When
The last two question words are relatively simple—both
¿cómo?
and
¿cuándo?
have a direct equivalent in English: “how” and “when,” respectively.
¿Cómo se dice “Irlanda” en inglés?
How do you say
Irlanda
in English?
¿Cuándo regresará mamá?
When will mom come back?
What Time Is It?
Asking about time is a frequent kind of question, and it deserves some attention. In Spanish, the word for “time” is
tiempo.
¿Qué hora es?
What time is it?
Literally, the question is “What hour is it?” In the answer, the word
hora
is dropped, but it affects the conjugation of the verb and the gender of the definite article
la/las:
