Spanish Question Words: List, Accents and qué vs cuál

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.

qué vs cuál

The single biggest source of question-word errors. Qué asks for a definition or a category; cuál asks you to pick one from a set.

Name and address take cuál because you are picking the one that is yours out of all possible names. The mirror image is ¿Qué es la paella? - What is paella? (explain it), not which one.

Directly before a noun, qué is the safe choice everywhere: ¿Qué día? - What day? You will hear ¿Cuál libro? in parts of Latin America, but in Spain it sounds wrong.

Variants and combinations

A preposition always goes in front of the question word. English can leave it at the end (who are you talking to?); Spanish cannot.

Adónde is a plus dónde run together, and ¿A dónde vas? is also correct.

cuánto agreement

Cuánto agrees with the noun it asks about, like an adjective. Watch the ending:

Pick the ending from the noun, not from the answer you expect: ¿Cuánta gente hay? - How many people are there? Gente is feminine singular, so it is cuánta even if the answer is a thousand.

With a verb and no noun, it stays cuánto: ¿Cuánto cuesta? - How much does it cost? Standing in for a noun, it still agrees: ¿Cuántas quieres? - How many do you want? (of something feminine, such as manzanas).

quién plural

Quién has a plural, quiénes, for when the answer is more than one person. It never changes for gender, and the verb agrees with it.

How to use the drills

Spot the mistake first, then build questions from tiles. After that: the accented word from its meaning, whole questions to translate, the question word from its answer, qué or que, cuánto's four forms, and a match of the set. Say each question aloud.

Worked examples

Common mistakes English speakers make

See also

• The Spanish word order page covers yes/no questions and the other core differences from English.
• The Spanish exclamations page uses the same accented qué, cuánto and cómo to exclaim rather than ask.
• The Spanish relative pronouns page covers the unaccented que, quien, donde and cuando that join clauses.
• Demonstratives for ese hombre, esa casa and the rest of the pointing words these questions lean on.
• The Spanish grammar cheatsheet covers the wider A1-B1 foundation.