ASKING QUESTIONS IN SPANISH

SPANISH INTERROGATIVE WORDS

LISTEN

¿Qué?
¿Cómo?
¿Quién(es)?
¿Con quién?
¿Cuál(es)?
¿Cuándo?
¿Por qué?
¿Adónde?
¿De dónde?
¿Cuántos(as)?

What?
How?
Who?
With whom?
Which/What
When?
Why?
(To) where?
From where?
How many?

WRITING QUESTIONS

Questions in Spanish are preceded by an inverted question mark (¿) and followed by a question mark (?).

When asking questions using interrogative words you put the verb before the subject:

¿Dónde estudia María?     Where does María study?
¿Qué comes tú en la cafetería?     What do you eat in the cafeteria?
¿Con quién habla José?     With whom does José speak?

SIMPLE QUESTIONS

You can also ask questions that has a yes or no answer:

1. Using sentence's format, you raise intonation to indicate with your voice that you are asking a question:
¿María estudia en la biblioteca?     Does María study in the library?

2. You can also ask a question by switching the position of the subject and verb:
¿Estudia María en la biblioteca?     Does María study in the library?

WRITING SENTENCES

In Spanish as in English, sentences are written in the same pattern except for adjectives and nouns part. In Spanish the nouns come before the adjective.

Here is a simple pattern to write a sentence in Spanish (note the color code):
Subject + Verb + Indefinite article + noun + adjective

María compra una falda blanca → María buys a white skirt
Carlos es un chico atlético →   Carlos is an athletic boy
Los estudiantes leen un libro interesante →  The students read an interesting book

To make a sentence negative you place the word no before the verb.
María no compra una falda blanca     María does not buy a white skirt
Carlos no es un chico atlético     Carlos is not an athletic boy
Los estudiantes no leen un libro interesante     The students do not read an interesting book