Today we’ll be talking about specific questions and question words in Spanish. We can ask about all sorts of stuff like about the subject, object, location, amount and so on. Let’s have a look at some of these categories one by one.
Asking About the Subject (What, Who)
Let´s start with the three question words used to ask about the subject. We use qué (what) to ask about things. We use quién to ask about people if there is just one person and quiénes if there are more people:
| ¿Qué? | ¿Qué no funciona? | What isn’t working? |
| ¿Qué es esto? | What is this? | |
| ¿Quién? | ¿Quién lee un libro? | Who is reading a book? |
| ¿Quién viene ahora? | Who´s coming now? | |
| ¿Quiénes? | ¿Quiénes son los muchachos? | Who are the boys? |
| ¿Quiénes son los dos señores? | Who are the two gentlemen? |
Asking About the Object (What, Who/Whom)
We use the same pronouns to ask about the object. They may be used with or without prepositions. The pronouns referring to people are used with the preposition a whether they are used as direct or indirect objects. The pronoun qué, which refers to things, is preceded by the preposition a only if it’s used as an indirect object. If it’s used as a direct object, it isn’t preceded by any preposition. Naturally, we can use other prepositions too. Here are some examples with qué, so we’re asking about things:
| ¿Qué? | ¿Qué haces? | What are you doing? |
| ¿Qué dice María? | What does María say? | |
| ¿A qué? | ¿A qué te dedicas? | What do you do (like for a living for example)? |
| ¿De qué? | ¿De qué hablas? | What are you talking about? |
| ¿Con qué? | ¿Con qué lo has hecho? | What did you do it with? |
And here are some examples with quién/quiénes, so we’re asking about people:
| ¿A quién? | ¿A quién vendéis la casa? | To whom are you selling the house? |
| ¿A quién quieres ver? | Who do you want to see? | |
| ¿A quiénes? | ¿A quiénes invitamos? | Who(m) do we invite? |
| ¿Con quién? | ¿Con quién vas al teatro? | With whom are you going to the theater? |
| ¿Para quién? | ¿Para quién haces esto? | For whom do you do it? |
| ¿De quién? | ¿De quién es esta casa? | Whose is this house? |
Naturally, if there is more than one person, we use quiénes instead of quién in each of the above examples.
Asking About Location (Where, Where To, Where From)
We use the question word dónde to ask about location. There are two other related question words that are used if we want to ask about destination (a dónde or adónde) or origin (de dónde). Watch the spelling by the way, the former may be written as one word or two, the latter as two separate words.
| ¿Dónde? | ¿Dónde vive la bruja? | Where does the witch live? |
| ¿Adónde? | ¿Adónde van los elefantes? | Where are the elephants going (to)? |
| ¿De dónde? | ¿De dónde viene usted? | Where do you come from? |
Asking About Amount (How Much, How Many)
We use the question words cuánto, cuánta, cuántos, cuántas to ask about amount.The former two are used with noncount nouns, the latter two with count nouns.
| ¿Cuánto? | ¿Cuánto dinero gana tu amigo? | How much money does your friend earn? |
| ¿Cuánta? | ¿Cuánta leche quieres beber? | How much milk do you want to drink? |
| ¿Cuántos? | ¿Cuántos son? | How many are they? |
| ¿Cuántas? | ¿Cuántas cucharas necesitas? | How many spoons do you need? |
Asking About Particular Items (Which)
Here are two more question words, one used in singular, the other in plural. They correspond to which or what in English:
| ¿Cuál? | ¿Cuál prefieres? | Which one do you prefer? |
| ¿Cuáles? | ¿Cuáles quieres vender? | Which ones do you want to sell? |
cuál vs qué
Sometimes it´s confusing whether we should use cuál or qué, in particular when they are used with the verb to be. The general rule is that qué is only used when we ask for definition. Cuális used when we ask about a particular item. Here are some examples:
| ¿Qué? | ¿Qué es la capital? | What is the capital? (asking for the definition of ´capital´) |
| ¿Cuál? | ¿Cuál es la capital de México? | What is the capital of Mexico? (asking for the name of the city) |
Some more examples:
| ¿Cuál es tu nombre? | What is your name? |
| ¿Cuál es tu coche? | Which is your car? |
| ¿Cuáles de los diez quieres? | Which ones of the ten do you want? |
Asking About Manner and Qualities (How, What … like)
The question word cómo is used as both how and what…like. Have a look at how it functions:
| ¿Cómo? | ¿Cómo es tu hermana? | What is your sister like? |
| ¿ Cómo? | ¿Cómo puede ser eso? | How can that be? |
| ¿ Cómo…de…? | ¿Cómo es de grande? | How big is it? |
Pay attention to the last example. If the question word how is to be followed by an adjective, we use a construction with de like above.
Other Question Words
Here are some other common question words:
| ¿Cuándo? | ¿Cuándo vienen tus amigos? | When are your friends coming? |
| ¿Por qué? | ¿Por qué preguntas? | Why do you ask? |
| ¿Para qué? | ¿Para qué necesitas el dinero? | What do you need the money for? |