Asking questions – A preguntar
If you are going to go shopping, you will probably need to ask some questions. In English, when we ask questions, we use the order: Do-subject-verb-object?
Listen to the following audio to hear each Spanish phrase.
In Spanish, asking questions is a little different because there is no word for do, and the word order is different. The Spanish word order for a yes/no question is: verb-subject-object.
To answer yes to such questions, it is usually done the same in Spanish as it is in English.
However, to answer no to such questions, it becomes necessary to learn a few rules. In English, when we answer negatively, we say:
The negative word not is combined with the word do. We just learned, though, that they don’t use the word do in Spanish, so the negative word no stands by itself immediately before the verb.
So, to sum it all up:
Qué, Quién, Dónde, Por qué, Cómo, Cuánto
While you have been shopping, you’ve been able to ask questions like, “Do you have apples?” or “Do you like broccoli?” But perhaps you would like to get some more details. That is why we need interrogative words, like the following:
| Interrogative Words A | Interrogative Words B |
|---|---|
| qué – what | por qué – why |
| dónde – where | cuál – which |
| cómo – how | quién/quiénes – who |
| cuándo – when | cuánto/cuántos – how much |
In Spanish, the interrogative word is usually the first word in the sentence. Generally speaking, interrogative questions follow the word order:interrogative-verb-subject (if needed)-object (if needed).
For the following examples, listen to the audio to learn correct pronunciation.
Notice that the interrogatives quién and cuánto can be singular or plural.