The Spanish question words are qué (what), quién (who), dónde (where), cuándo (when), por qué (why), cómo (how), cuál (which) and cuánto (how much). They always carry an accent. Spanish questions use ¿ at the start and ? at the end, and the verb often comes before the subject: ¿Dónde vive tu hermana?
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What’s worse than not being able to ask questions in Spanish when you want to know something? Whether you’re out shopping, meeting up with your friends, or on vacation, knowing how to ask questions is a skill you can work on. After all, asking questions is one way of learning about the world around us and getting to know people, making friends, and so on.
This handy guide will teach you how questions are formed in Spanish and all the nitty gritty you need to know to navigate the Spanish-speaking world.
Video transcript
¡Hola amigos! Hannah from Speak Better Spanish here. I am recording this in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. Today we're going to be talking about how to make a question in Spanish. So, there's three key things that we need in order to differentiate a question from a statement. First thing: inverted question mark. In Spanish, whenever we make a question, we're going to put an inverted question mark at the beginning of that phrase and a regular question mark at the end of that phrase. It's very rare and it would probably, you like, you might see a sentence that has a question mark only at the end without the inverted question mark at the beginning, but that would be a case of someone being informal in their way of most likely writing.
You can't hear the question mark, so it doesn't have any specific way of saying it when we're having a conversation. So, if we want to be grammatically correct, we'll put that initial question mark inverted at the beginning and the other question mark at the end. Why? I don't know. I think it's a way of kind of segmenting off the question. Most of the time it's the whole sentence, but it could be something, something, something, comma, and then the question with the question mark. So, the first part could be a statement and then we could move into a question.
An example of that might be: Te gusta chocolate, ¿verdad? Statement. You like chocolate. Question. Right? In that case, just the verdad would have the inverted question mark and the regular question mark. Right. So, first thing, the question marks. Second thing, when we're speaking, it's gonna have a different intonation. The intonation is gonna go up at the end in the same way we make questions in English. So, statement. Te gusta chocolate. Question. ¿Te gusta chocolate? Do you like chocolate? Versus, statement.
You like chocolate. You can hear from the intonation. This is something that we can practice as we're starting to get more comfortable speaking Spanish. It's not necessarily something that comes easily, and I know a lot of times when we're learning to speak a language we might speak in kind of a monotone way as we first start to get comfortable, but as we start to kind of level up to that next level we can focus on the intonation for questions making it go up. And the third key that is going to differentiate a question from a statement in Spanish is that most of the time in Spanish our questions have the verb first and then the subject.
An example of how we have the inverted subject and verb in Spanish would be: ¿Vives tú acá? Do you live here? So notice first, vives, the verb, to live. Second, subject pronoun, tú. Optional. You don't have to use it. You could just say say vives acá. And acá, a way of saying here. Versus statement: Sí, yo vivo acá. Or sí, vivo acá. Or just vivo acá. So you'll notice that inversion and that's going to be consistent most of the time in Spanish when asking questions. There are some questions that we can form that don't have that inversion, but it's not going to be super common.
So remember: inverted question mark, intonation when speaking, and inversion of the subject verb order. So statements we have subject then verb. Questions we have verb then subject. And sometimes our subject is optional. Drop me an example in the comment section below of a question. Just any question that you could write in Spanish to practice. Thanks guys. See you in the next one. ¡Adiós!
Asking questions in Spanish
There is one thing that sets Spanish apart from the other languages: the inverted or upside-down question mark (¿). If you’re just learning Spanish, the inverted mark may seem daunting, but it’s actually pretty simple. Just as the regular question mark (?) is used at the end of a sentence, the inverted mark (¿) is used at the beginning of the sentence. Think of it as a way of opening the sentence… For example:
- ¿Cuál es tu nombre? – What’s your name?
- ¿Qué te gusta hacer? – What do you like to do?
- ¿Cuál es tu película favorita? – What is your favorite movie? (Learn how to talk about movies in Spanish.)
- ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? – When is the party?
- ¿Dónde está el baño? – Where is the bathroom?
Using the inverted mark (¿) in the middle of a sentence
What do you do when only a part of the sentence is a question? In Spanish, you will place the inverted mark (¿) and question mark (?) only around the portion that’s a question. Have a look over these sentences:
- Hola, ¿cómo te sientes? – Hi, how are you feeling?
- Estoy feliz, ¿y tú? – I’m happy, and you?
- Pero, ¿por qué no me lo dijo antes? – Why didn’t she tell me sooner?
- Buenos días, ¿cómo te puedo ayudar? – Good morning, how can I help you?
- Disculpa, ¿sabes dónde hay wifi por aquí? – Excuse, do you know where’s wifi nearby?
How to use interrogative words in Spanish
Maybe you noticed the use of “where,” “what” and “when” in the examples above. These are called interrogative words, and they can be pronouns or adverbs. Both English and Spanish use interrogative words and their purpose is to show the meaning of the questions you ask. There’s a big difference between a “how” and a “what.” You basically set the tone of the question with the interrogatives:
- Qué – What
- Quién / Quiénes– Who
- Cuándo – When
- Dónde – Where
- Cómo – How
- Cuál / Cuáles– Which
- Por qué – Why
- Cuánto, cuánta – How much (cuánto is masculine, cuánta is feminine)
- Cuántos, cuántas – How many (cuántos is masculine, cuántas is feminine)
Some of these interrogatives can also be preceded by prepositions: a quién (to whom), de quién (of whom), de dónde (from where), or de qué (of what.)
Making questions in Spanish using interrogatives
Before we jump to examples, it’s important to know that all the interrogative words have accents when used to ask questions in Spanish. As a rule, if you see an interrogative word with an accent mark, it means it’s asking a question. On the other hand, when the same interrogative is used in a statement, you won’t see (or add) an accent. And there is no difference in pronunciation. For instance, compare these two:
- ¿Cuándo hace menos calor en Perú? – When is Peru the least warm?
- Julio es cuando hace menos calor en Perú. – July is when Peru is the least warm.
Examples of questions in Spanish with interrogatives
- ¿Qué es eso? – What is that?
- ¿Quién te dijo eso? – Who told you so?
- ¿Cuándo nos vemos? – When are we seeing each other?
- ¿Dónde está la estación del metro? – Where is the subway stop?
- ¿Cómo te gusta tomar café? – How do you like to drink coffee?
- ¿Cuál es el mío? – Which one is mine?
- ¿Por qué no fuiste a mi fiesta de cumpleaños? – Why didn’t you come to my birthday party?
- ¿Cuánto cuesta? – How much does it cost?
- ¿Cuántas personas viven en Costa Rica? – How many people live in Costa Rica?
Altough English uses the same word (be it singular or plural) for “who,” in Spanish we have quién for singular and quiénes for plural. Here’s an example: ¿Sabes quiénes fueron a la fiesta de Mike? (Do you know who went to Mike’s party?). Same goes for “which:” cuál for singular and cuáles for plural. For instance, ¿Cuáles son tus colores favoritos? (Which are your favorite colors?).
The Spanish questions structure
Now you know how to use the inverted question mark (¿) and the interrogatives. The only thing left is how to structure questions in Spanish. Similar to English, you can use an interrogative word to start a question. And in general, a verb will follow the interrogative: ¿Cuándo sale el tren? (When does the train leave?). However, the Spanish language is less strict when it comes to word order. The truth is that you can turn any statement into a question. In this case, your intonation will play a role and you should end your statements in a higher pitch to indicate that you’re asking a question. For instance:
- ¿Vamos por un café? – Should we go get coffee?
- Vamos por un café. – Let’s go get coffee.
- ¿Los inviernos en Lisboa son fríos? – Are winters in Lisbon cold?
- Los inviernos en Lisboa son fríos. – Winters in Lisbon are cold.
That’s all folks! If you want more Spanish lessons, download our free Spanish conversation course ebook, and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Thanks ❤️
Where to go from here
Knowing the question words is one thing. Using them without freezing mid-sentence is another. If you want help getting from the first to the second, book a free Spanish Roadmap Session and we’ll build a plan around how you actually learn. Or see conversational Spanish coaching.
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