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Spanish greetings
How to say hello and goodbye
Question words in Spanish
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How to ask questions in Spanish
Formal vs. Informal "You"
The two kinds of address and when to use each one
Spanish plurals
How to get more than one of something
Definite and indefinite articles
The difference between "the" and "a", and how to say these in Spanish
Negating statements
How to say you don't know what you're doing
Adjectives in Spanish
Where to put them and how to use them
Ser vs Estar: The two kinds of "to be"
How to know when to say yo soy vs. when to say yo estoy.
Weather vocabulary
The ultimate icebreaker
Feelings and moods
How to talk about how you're feeling using the verbs estar and sentirse
Spanish false cognates ("false friends")
9 Spanish words that seem similar to English, but are actually dangerously different
Telling the time
How to ask and give the time in Spanish
¿Dónde está? or ¿Dónde hay?
How to know whether to use estar or haber when talking about something's existence
Comparisons of inequality
Bigger, smaller, faster, slower: How to compare two things and use superlatives in Spanish
Directions in Spanish
How to ask directions, and a few common prepositions that will help you get there
Being sore or sick
How to talk about illnesses and afflictions in Spanish

Question words in Spanish

WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? AND HOW?

Asking questions in Spanish is quite similar to asking questions in English. It's really just a matter of learning the vocabulary.

Spanish question words

Here are the words to help you solve all the world's mysteries. (At least the mysteries in the Spanish-speaking world.)

The words in square brackets like [this] are optional. (More about that later!)

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¿Quién?
Who? (one person)
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¿Quién eres [tú]?
Who are you?
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¿Quiénes?
Who? (more than one person)
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¿Quiénes son [ellos]?
Who are they?
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¿Qué?
What?
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¿Qué quiere [él]?
What does he want?
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¿Dónde?
Where?
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¿Dónde está el teatro?
Where is the theater?
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¿Cuándo?
When?
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¿Cuándo es la fiesta?
When is the party?
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¿Cuál?
Which?
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¿Cuál quieres [tú]?
Which one do you want?
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¿Por qué?
Why?
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¿Por qué están [ellos] aquí?
Why are they here?
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¿Cómo?
How?
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¿Cómo sabes [tú] mi nombre?
How do you know my name?

Asking questions without question words!

Just like in English, you can ask a question without using any question words. All you need to do is say it with a rising intonation at the end. (Consider the difference between saying, "He finished it." and saying "He finished it?")

You'll usually find that if the question includes one of those personal pronouns (you, me, he, she, they, etc) the question will make it move to after the verb, but either way is fine.

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Tu tienes mi lápiz.
You have my pencil.
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¿Tú tienes mi lápiz?
Do you have my pencil?
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¿Tienes [tú] mi lápiz?
Do you have my pencil?
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Tú sabes como llegar ahí.
You know how to get there.
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¿Tú sabes cómo llegar ahí?
Do you know how to get there?
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¿Sabes [tú] cómo llegar ahí?
Do you know how to get there?

Differences between Spanish and English questioning

You might have noticed, there are a few differences between asking questions in English and asking questions in Spanish. These are the main differences between Spanish and English:

No auxiliary verbs (hoorah!)

In Spanish you don't need to use words like "do" or "will" (auxiliary verbs). So there's no "will she come?", it's just "she comes?"

The important part is your intonation: Rise at the end of the question, so it doesn't sound like you're just affirming "yes, she comes."

You can usually leave out the personal pronoun (yay!)

As you saw in the examples above, in Spanish you can often leave the he / she / you / me (personal pronoun) out of the question. So instead of "You stole my iPod?" you'd just say "Stole my iPod?".

Of course this doesn't make much sense in English, but in Spanish each verb (like "to steal") changes to agree with the personal pronoun (he, she, they, etc).

So you can tell who it's talking about just by looking at the verb, and you don't actually need to say "you". There are a few exceptions to this, and you may need to clarify in some instances, but this is true a lot of the time.

Different word order

In Spanish you'll put a verb immediately after the question word. So instead of "How do you know?" it would be more like "How know you?". 

Or you could even just say "How know?" since the "you" isn't really necessary either.

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Free Spanish Lessons

Spanish greetings
Question words in Spanish
Formal vs. informal "you"
Spanish plurals
Definite and indefinite articles in Spanish
Negating statements
How to use adjectives in Spanish
Ser vs Estar: The two kinds of "to be"
Weather vocabulary!
Feelings and moods
Telling the time
¿Dónde está? or ¿Dónde hay?
Comparisons of inequality
Directions in Spanish
Being sore or sick

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