Asking questions

• You can ask questions using question words like qué, quién, cuándo, por qué, cómo, cuál, cuánto, and dónde.
• You can also use declarative sentences, inversion of subject and verb or voice inflection to ask questions.
• All questions in Spanish begin with an upside-down question mark ¿ and end in a question mark.

There are four different ways of asking questions in Spanish.

1. Use question words, such as ‘How much is …?’.

2. Use a declarative sentence, such as ‘I would like … please’.

3. Invert, or swap the order of, the verb and the subject to form a question, such as ‘Can I have …?’.

4. Use voice inflection.

Remember

When writing any type of Spanish question, don’t forget the upside-down question mark ¿ at the start of the sentence.

The main question words in Spanish are:

qué - what

quién - who

cuándo - when

por qué - why

cómo - how, what like

cuál - which

cuánto/cuántos - how much/how many

dónde - where

Notice that the question words all have an accent. This indicates that the syllable needs to be emphasised when speaking.

For example:

¿Cómo se dice 'tree' en español? - How do you say tree in Spanish?

¿Por qué no te gusta el chocolate? - Why don’t you like chocolate?

¿Cuánto cuesta? - How much does it cost?

¿Dónde está el banco? - Where’s the bank?

¿Cuánto? and ¿cuánta? mean how much.

¿Cuánto? is used when the word following it is masculine singular. ¿Cuánta? Is used when the word following it is feminine singular.

For example:

¿Cuánto cuesta el libro? - How much does the book cost?

¿Cuánta gente fue a la fiesta? - How many people went to the party?

¿Cuántos? and ¿cuántas? mean how much or how many?

¿Cuántos? is used when the word following it is masculine plural. ¿Cuántas? Is used when the word following it is feminine plural.

For example:

¿Cuántos hermanos tienes? - How many siblings do you have?

¿Cuántas manzanas tienes? - How many apples do you have?

A common use of ¿Cuántos? is to ask how old someone is, which is formed in a different way to English and literally means ‘How many years do you have?’

¿Cuántos años tienes? - How old are you?

You can ask questions by making a declaration of what you want.

When asking for something in a shop, for example, use quisiera which means ‘I would like’.

For example:

Quisiera un kilo de manzanas por favor. - I would like a kilo of apples please.

Another way to ask if you can have something, is to use podría plus an infinitive.

For example:

¿Podría servirme una hamburguesa por favor? - Can I order a burger please?

Common declarative question phrases include:

For example:

Me gustaría un helado de fresa por favor. - I would like a strawberry ice cream please.

¿Puedo ir al servicio, por favor? - Can I go to the bathroom please?

¿Podría servirme un café con leche por favor? - Can I have a white coffee please?

If the sentence has a subject in it, you can ask a question by inverting the order of the subject and the verb. Start with the verb then follow it with the subject.

While it’s good to know this exists, you won’t hear this way of asking questions very often in everyday speech.

For example:

¿Tiene usted hambre? - Are you (formal) hungry?

You can ask a question in Spanish by making a statement and changing your voice so that it sounds like a question.

Do this by making your voice sound higher in tone at the end of a sentence.

¿Tienes hermanos? - Do you (informal) have any brothers or sisters?

You need to write the sentence with the correct punctuation and say it appropriately.

Practise what you've learned about asking questions in Spanish with this quiz.

Now you have learned about asking questions in Spanish why not explore the position of pronouns in Spanish?