A Difficult Question In Spanish

49 Spanish Questions You Need To Know to Speak similar a Native

Can you imagine having a chat to get to know someone in español without being able to enquire whatsoever questions?

Without knowing Castilian question words, how would yous inquire about someone's interests?

Besides that, how would you be able to go along the conversation flowing naturally? It would be quite difficult.

Not only are questions crucial for creating that back and forth conversation and getting to know ane another, but they help you deflect in the beginning. If your Castilian vocabulary is limited, an easy manner to continue talking is to ask simple questions.

Beginning by understanding the basic Spanish question words and so add together in the vocabulary you need to know. I've included some example Castilian questions and answers at the end to help you lot go going.

¿Estás listo? ¡Vamos! ("Are y'all set up? Let'south go!")

Spanish Question Words

Time to acquire your "Who", "What", "When", "Where", "Why" and "How" in Castilian. These are the most common, basic Spanish question words you demand to get the answers yous want. A skilful thing to note is question words, when used every bit a question, all take an accent mark. When they're used in a argument, you drop the the accent mark.

Who? – ¿Quién?

When asking about one person, you say ¿Quién? Merely when request about more than one person, you lot have to change it to its plural course, which is ¿Quiénes? If you need to say "whose", you would use de quién.

¿Quién es? – "Who is it?"
¿Quiénes son? – "Who are they?"
¿De quién son estos libros? – "Whose books are these?"

What? / Which – ¿Qué? / ¿Cuál?

In Spanish, "what" has two different words: qué and cuál. This can get a little confusing, but an like shooting fish in a barrel way to retrieve it is that qué has only one factual respond possible. You use cuál to enquire nearly a personal opinion or a option between options. Cuál is a flake closer to "which" in some cases. Hither are some examples:

¿Qué haces ahora? – "What are you doing right now?"
¿Qué es esto? – "What'due south that?"
¿Cuál es tu favorito? – "Which is your favourite?"
¿Cuál es tu película favorita? – "What is your favourite flick?"

If asking about something that's plural, cuál becomes cuáles. Like in the last example, if y'all instead asked "What are your favourite movies?" it would be ¿Cuáles son tus películas favoritas?

When? – ¿Cuándo?

To ask "when" is piece of cake: you say cuándo. The merely matter to note hither is yous can't use cuándo when you're asking for a specific time (in hours and/or minutes). For that, the question is a qué hora every bit in ¿A qué hora es la película?: "What time is the movie?"

Here are some examples with cuándo:

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? – "When is your birthday?"
¿Cuándo vas a ir? – "When will you go?"

Where? – ¿Dónde?

Dónde ways "where", but information technology has two other forms based on the preposition y'all utilise with it. A dónde means "to where", while de dónde means "from where".

¿Dónde vives? – "Where practice you live?"
¿A dónde vas? – "To where are you going?"
¿De dónde eres? – "Where are you from?"

Why? – ¿Por qué? / ¿Para qué?

Ah, the hard por vs. para state of affairs. It tin be a bit difficult to know when to use which. Information technology helps to think of para qué as "what for" or to understand the purpose of something. And recollect of por qué equally "why", or to empathize the cause of something.

¿Por qué dices eso? – "Why do you lot say that?" (What caused you lot to say that?)
¿Para qué estás aprendiendo español? – "What are you lot learning Spanish for?" (For what reason or purpose?)

How? – ¿Cómo?

Cómo is adequately straightforward, asking "how". How someone is, how they do something, etc. But it doesn't utilize to "how much" or "how many" (I'll come to that next).

¿Cómo está usted? – "How are you?"
¿Cómo hiciste eso? – "How did y'all do that?"

How many? / How much? – ¿Cuántos? / ¿Cuánto? / ¿Cuántas? / ¿Cuánta?

Cuánto and cuántos are the masculine singular and plural forms, and they hateful "how much" or "how many". Cuánta and cuántas are the feminine singular and plural forms. They change based on the gender of the noun you're counting.

¿Cuántas manzanas? – "How many apples?"
¿Cuántos aguacates? – "How many avocados?"
¿Cuánta agua? – "How much water?"
¿Cuánto té? – "How much tea?"

The Spanish Question Marking

As you can meet above, in Spanish, there are ii question marks: ¿ and ?

At the start of your question, you lot employ the inverted question marker or upside-down question mark. This is called signo de apertura de interrogación ("question mark opening sign") in Spanish and it's used to "open up the question". It just lets the reader know you're going to ask something. Yous and then "close the question" with the standard question mark.

That function is easy, but at that place's ane more thing to note. You simply wrap the question marks effectually the question itself. So whatever connecting words, greetings, or other words that come before? Go out them outside the question marks.

So, for example, this looks like Bueno, ¿qué hay de la cena? ("Well, what's for dinner?") You practise the same thing with exclamation marks as well.

How to Say "I Have a Question" in Spanish

When yous need to inquire a question, in that location are a few ways you can atomic number 82 into it or ask permission.
The virtually straightforward mode is Tengo una pregunta ("I take a question"). A few other options are:

¿Puedo hacerte una pregunta? – "Can I ask you a question?"
Tengo una pregunta para ti – "I have ane question for you." (You tin supercede una with the number word for how many questions yous have, such as dos preguntas.)
¿Puedo preguntarte algo? – "May I ask you something?"

Basic Spanish Questions

At present let's take a expect at some case Spanish questions and answers. These are questions you can utilise any time, with or without the bones Spanish question words. Y'all tin can, por supuesto, make questions without them just like in English language.
Keep in listen that when you get to personalise these, you lot may demand to alter the course of the verb or objects. If you alter a word from singular to plural, the whole sentence must friction match. And if you modify the person performing the action of the verb, the conjugation has to alter.

Introductions

Hola, ¿cómo te llamas? – "Hi, what's your name?"
Soy Benny. – "I'm Benny."
¿Que tal? – "How're you?"
Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tu? – "I'm great, thank you. And you?"
¿Cuántos años tienes? – "How old are you lot?"
Tengo treinta años. – "I am 30 years old."
¿A qué te dedicas? – "What practise you do for a living?"
Soy escritor y orador. – "I am a writer and speaker."

Getting to Know Someone

¿Donde trabajas? – "Where do you lot work?"
Trabajo en un restaurante. – "I work at a restaurant."
¿Cuáles son tus aficiones? – "What are your hobbies?"
Me gusta leer libros y ver películas. – "I like to read books and watch movies."
¿De donde eres? – "Where are you lot from?"
Soy de Irlanda. – "I'grand from Republic of ireland."
¿Cuál es tu película favorita? – "What'southward your favourite movie?"
Me encanta Star Wars. – "I love Star Wars."
¿Desde cuándo aprendes español? – "How long have you been learning Castilian?"
Aprendo español desde hace tres meses. – "I've been learning Spanish for 3 months."
¿Cuál es tu color favorito? – "What is your favourite colour?"
Me gusta el verde. – "I similar greenish."
¿Hablas otros idiomas? – "Practice y'all speak other languages?"
Sí, hablo inglés y francés. – "Yes, I speak English and French."

Discussing Family

¿Tienes hermanos? – "Do y'all have any siblings?
Sí, una hermana. – "Aye, one sister."
¿Tienes hijos? – "Do you have whatever kids?"
No, no tengo hijos. – "No, I don't have kids."
¿Cuántos en tu familia? – "How many in your family unit?"
Tres. Yo, mi mujer y mi perrito. – "Me, my wife, and my puppy."
¿Tienes alguna mascota? – "Exercise you have a pet?"
Sí, tengo un perro. – "Yes, I accept a dog."
¿Cuál es el nombre de tu hermano/hermana? – "What is your brother'due south/sis's name?"
*El nombre de mi hermano/hermana es…" – "My brother's/sis's proper name is…"
¿Qué hacen tus padres? – "What do your parents practise?"
Mi padre es ingeniero y mi madre es enfermera. – "My dad is an engineer and my mom is a nurse."
¿Dónde creciste? – "Where did you grow upward?"
Yo crecí en… – "I grew upwards in…"

Everyday Helpful Questions

¿Que hora es? – "What fourth dimension is it?"
Es la una. – "It'south 1 o'clock."
¿Qué día es? – "What day is information technology?"
Es viernes. – "It's Friday."
¿A dónde vas? – "Where are yous going?"
Me voy a trabajar. – "I'one thousand going to work."
¿Qué haces? – "What are you doing?"
Estoy estudiando español. – "I'thousand studying Castilian."
¿Estás de acuerdo? – "Do y'all concur?"
*Pues… yo no sé." – "Well… I don't know."
¿Qué piensas? – "What do yous think?"
Creo que esta bien. – "I think information technology's good."
¿Qué has dicho? – "What did you say?"
Dije… – "I said…"
¿Dónde está el baño? – "Where's the bathroom?"
Por ahí. – "Over there."

Start Asking Questions

At that place's plenty hither to get you started asking questions and speaking naturally. Once you larn the bones Spanish phrases and answers, you can change out words to fit your own personal vocabulary. The more yous acquire and practise, the easier it gets! And you'll notice some questions pop up quite ofttimes, while others you may employ less. Focus on what y'all need the most in the beginning, so you can commencement having your first comfy conversations.

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-fourth dimension globe trotter and international bestselling author. Benny believes the best approach to language learning is to speak from twenty-four hour period one.

Speaks: Castilian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

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