Qué, dónde, cuándo: asking questions

Spanish asks with a small closed set of question words. Every one carries a written accent when it asks, and the question word goes first, with the verb straight after it:

• ¿Dónde está María? - Where is María?
• ¿Qué quieres? - What do you want?

The full set

The first five are the ones you need on day one. The rest follow the same rules.

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1. 1¿Quién?
2. 2¿Dónde?
3. 3¿Cuándo?
4. 4¿Cuánto?

A person for quién, a pin on the map for dónde, a clock for cuándo, a pile of coins for cuánto. Each one carries its accent.

Three of them change form: quién and cuál take a plural, and cuánto agrees with its noun (quién and cuánto have their own sections below). The rest never change.

Por qué is two words with an accent; porque (because) is one word with none. They work as question and answer:

• ¿Por qué no vienes? - Why aren't you coming?
• Porque no quiero. - Because I don't want to.

The accent is the question

Every question word has an unaccented twin with a different job. On the page the accent is the only difference, and it means "this word asks".

Cómo, quién and cuánto split the same way. The unaccented twins are on the Spanish relative pronouns page.

The accent stays in indirect questions, with no question marks at all. The word still asks, so it keeps its accent:

• No sé qué hacer. - I don't know what to do.
• Dime dónde vives. - Tell me where you live.
• No entiendo cómo funciona. - I don't understand how it works.

If you can feel a question hiding inside the sentence, write the accent. The same words open exclamations, still accented: ¡Qué bonito! - How lovely! Those have their own page, Spanish exclamations, and reported questions are on reported questions.

Word order in questions

Question word first, verb second, any subject after the verb. There is no do, does or did to add.

In the Caribbean you will hear a pronoun squeezed in first, ¿Qué tú quieres? - What do you want? It is regional; do not copy it.

A yes/no question has no question word and keeps the statement order: ¿Hablas español? - Do you speak Spanish? That is on the Spanish word order page.