The Everything Spanish Grammar Book

C HAPTER 16

Questions and Answers

BY NOW YOU SHOULD BE comfortable with the order of words in the Spanish sentence. Generally it goes like this: subject + object pronouns (if any) + verb + object. Now, be prepared for a shift. In Spanish (just as in English), the order of words may change when you form a question.

I Have a Question

Asking questions in Spanish isn’t very different from how we do it in English—but you probably never even thought about how it’s done in English and did it automatically. Now you’ll have to pay attention.

To form a question in Spanish, there are four basic options:

1. Raising your voice at the end of the sentence.

2. Inverting the subject and verb.

3. Adding a question phrase at the end of the statement.

4. Using a question word.

The first option is simplest. As you ask the following question, your voice should rise by the time you get to “ña” in mañana :

¿El electricista llega mañana?

The electrician will come tomorrow?

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Don’t forget that in Spanish, question marks work just like quotation marks: You need two of them to frame the question, and the first question mark looks like it’s upside down. Here are two examples: ¿Qué quieres hacer hoy? (What do you want to do today?) Quieres ir a compras, ¿verdad? (You want to go shopping, right?)

To emphasize what you’re asking, you can also invert the subject and verb of the sentence. In the following example, the subject tú and the verb eres switch places:

¿Eres tú la actriz del teatro Colón en Argentina?

Are you the actress from the Colon theater in Argentina?

It’s also possible to turn a statement into a question by adding a question word or phrase to the end of it:

Están de acuerdo conmigo, ¿verdad?

You agree with me, right?

Hoy es miércoles, ¿no es así?

Today is Wednesday, isn’t it?

Other question words and phrases that may be added to the end of statements include the following:

¿no es cierto?	isn’t it certain?
¿no?	or not?
¿sí?	right?
¿eh?	huh? (waiting for confirmation)

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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:

Es la una.

It’s one o’clock.

Son las dos.

It’s two o’clock.

Son las once.

It’s eleven o’clock.

Il_9781593373092_0017_001 QUESTION?

What about a.m. and p.m.?
In Spanish, the twenty-four hours are divided into morning, afternoon, and night. From 1 a.m. until 11 a.m., use de la mañana; from 1 p.m. until around 7 or 8 p.m. you can say de la tarde; the rest of the time, the right phrase is de la noche.

To Be More Specific

Let’s review the phrases for giving more exact times. If it’s a few minutes past the hour, simply use y (and) to add the minutes:

Son las cuatro y diez de la tarde.

It’s ten minutes past four in the afternoon (4:10 P.M.).

If it’s just a few minutes before the hour, you can either add the minutes or you may round up with the help of the word menos (minus):

Son las cuatro y cincuenta.

It’s four fifty (4:50).

Son las cinco menos diez.

It’s ten minutes to five.

And here are additional options for saying 4:15, 4:30, and 4:45:

Son las cuatro y cuarto.

It’s four and a quarter (4:15).

Son las cuatro y media.

It’s four and a half (4:30).

Son las cinco menos cuarto.

It’s a quarter to five (4:45).

The following examples contain phrases associated with noon and midnight:

Son las doce de la noche. Es medianoche.

It’s twelve at night. It’s midnight.

Son las doce del día. Es mediodía.

It’s twelve noon. It’s noontime.