1.3.0: Gramática

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Page ID: 280851

Amanda Hadley and Kelsey Harper
Butler Community College

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**Question words that work in similar ways in both languages**
Question words	Examples
¿Cómo? How? / What (to be) like?	¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) ¿Cómo es tu clase de español? (What is your Spanish class like?)
¿Cuándo? When?	¿Cuándo es tu clase de español? (When is your Spanish class?)
¿De dónde? From where?	¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?)
¿Dónde? Where?	¿Dónde es la clase de español? (Where is the Spanish class?)
¿Por qué? Why?	¿Por qué es interesante la clase? (Why is the class interesting?)

As you can see, like in English, these words are always placed at the beginning of the question, and they never change, regardless of the noun or verb that follows them.

**Question words that are different in Spanish**
Question words	Examples
¿Cuánto? (masc.) / ¿Cuánta? (fem.) How much?	¿Cuánto jugo hay? (How much juice is there?) ¿Cuánta harina hay? (How much flour is there?)
¿Cuántos? (masc.) / ¿Cuántas? (fem.) How many?	¿Cuántos hombres hay en la clase? (How many men are there in the class?) ¿Cuántas profesoras hay en el departamento? (How many female professors are there in the department?)
¿Quién? (sing.) Who?	¿Quién es tu instructor de español? (Who is your Spanish instructor?)
¿Quiénes? (plural) Who?	¿Quiénes son tus amigos? (Who are your friends?)
¿Cuál? (sing.) Which?	¿Cuál es tu clase favorita? (Which is your favorite class?)
¿Cuáles? (plural) Which?	¿Cuáles son tus clases favoritas? (Which are your favorite classes?)

As you can see, most of these question words change their ending depending on the gender and number of the noun that follows them.

¡Ojo!

Quién and cuál, which are always followed by a verb, only change their ending for number. These two question words can never be followed by a noun.
Notice that questions in Spanish always start with an obligatory inverted question mark [¿]. Also, all Spanish question words (when used in a question) always have accents.

Use the chat mat to help you learn the Spanish interrogative words:

Palabras interrogativas.png

Attribution: Amanda Hadley, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Image generated with AI.

Nota

💡 Question words give you clues! They help you predict what kind of answer makes sense, even when you don’t understand every word. They help you narrow down the possibilities!

Modelo:

¿Cuándo es la fiesta? → ¿Cuándo? tells you to listen for a time or date.

“El sábado a las ocho” makes sense.
“Es azul” doesn’t!

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