Basic Questions in Spanish

In Brief

Spanish information questions commonly begin with an accented question word: quién (who), qué (what), dónde (where), cuándo (when), cómo (how), or por qué (why). Yes/no questions often use the same words as statements but are marked by ¿...? in writing and question intonation in speech: ¿Vives aquí? means “Do you live here?”

Overview

Questions are essential from the beginning of Spanish: they let you ask someone’s name, find a place, understand a price, or keep a conversation going. At A1, the central task is to recognize a small set of question words and build short, useful questions with verbs you already know.

Spanish differs from English in two immediately visible ways. A direct written question has an opening question mark ¿ as well as a closing one ?, and interrogative words (words that ask for missing information) carry written accents: qué, quién, dónde, cuándo, cómo and por qué. These accents are part of correct spelling, not a sign that you should add an unusually strong stress.

Spanish also does not normally add an equivalent of English do or does merely to make a question. Compare Vives aquí (“You live here”) with ¿Vives aquí? (“Do you live here?”). The verb form, punctuation, context, and spoken intonation do the work.

How It Works

The core question words

Question word	Basic meaning	What it asks about	Example
quién / quiénes	who	a person or people	¿Quién llama?
qué	what	a thing, action, meaning, or category	¿Qué necesitas?
dónde	where	a place or location	¿Dónde está el banco?
cuándo	when	a time, day, or occasion	¿Cuándo empieza?
cómo	how	manner, condition, or description	¿Cómo estás?
por qué	why	a reason	¿Por qué esperas?

Quién has a plural form, quiénes, when the expected answer is more than one person: ¿Quiénes vienen? (“Who is coming?” / “Which people are coming?”). The other core words in this lesson do not change for number.

A practical sentence pattern

A useful beginner pattern is:

question word + conjugated verb + other information

• ¿Dónde trabajas? — Where do you work?
• ¿Cuándo llega Ana? — When does Ana arrive?
• ¿Cómo funciona esto? — How does this work?

A conjugated verb is a verb form changed to match the person and tense, such as vives (“you live”) or llega (“he/she arrives”). Spanish verb endings often reveal the subject (the person or thing doing or experiencing the action), so subject pronouns are frequently unnecessary: ¿Dónde vives? is more natural than automatically adding tú.

If an explicit noun subject appears, it often follows the verb in a question: ¿Dónde vive Marta? English instead puts the subject before the main verb and may add does: “Where does Marta live?” Spanish has no equivalent of that supporting does here. Subject placement is flexible, however, and depends on the question word, emphasis, dialect, and context; “always invert the subject and verb” is not a reliable complete rule.

Questions with quién

Quién can itself be the subject:

• ¿Quién es? — Who is it?
• ¿Quién prepara la cena? — Who is making dinner?

In these examples, the unknown person performs or is identified by the action. No separate subject is needed.

When “who” follows a preposition (a short linking word such as “with,” “for,” or “to”), Spanish places that preposition before quién:

• ¿Con quién hablas? — Who are you talking with?
• ¿Para quién es esto? — Who is this for?
• ¿A quién llamas? — Who are you calling?

The a in the last example is the personal a, used before many specific people who receive the action of a verb. English has no direct equivalent.

Questions with qué

Use qué to ask for information, identification, a definition, or an action:

• ¿Qué haces? — What are you doing?
• ¿Qué es una tapa? — What is a tapa?
• ¿Qué libro lees? — What book are you reading?

Before a noun, qué + noun commonly means “what” or “which”: ¿Qué música escuchas? (“What music do you listen to?”). Spanish also has cuál (“which/which one”), but its distribution does not exactly match English what and which. That contrast belongs with quantity and selection questions and is introduced in Related Concepts below.

Questions with dónde, cuándo, and cómo

Use dónde for location: ¿Dónde está mi teléfono? (“Where is my phone?”). A preposition can make the relationship more exact:

• ¿De dónde eres? — Where are you from?
• ¿A dónde vas? — Where are you going to?
• ¿Por dónde entramos? — Which way do we go in?

Adónde may also be written as one word when movement toward a destination is meant: ¿Adónde vas? Both ¿A dónde vas? and ¿Adónde vas? are accepted.

Use cuándo for time: ¿Cuándo termina la clase? (“When does the class end?”). Use cómo for manner or condition: ¿Cómo llegamos al centro? (“How do we get downtown?”) and ¿Cómo estás? (“How are you?”). In introductions, ¿Cómo te llamas? literally uses the verb llamarse (“to call oneself”) but naturally means “What is your name?”

Asking why and answering with a reason

The question phrase por qué is written as two words and has an accent:

• ¿Por qué estudias español? — Why do you study Spanish?

A common answer begins with porque, one word and no accent:

• Porque vivo en Madrid. — Because I live in Madrid.

Keep the pair together when learning it: ¿Por qué...? — Porque...

Yes/no questions

A yes/no question asks whether a whole statement is true. Spanish usually does not need a special question-making auxiliary (an extra helping verb) like English do:

Statement	Yes/no question	English question
Hablas español.	¿Hablas español?	Do you speak Spanish?
Ana está en casa.	¿Ana está en casa?	Is Ana at home?
Tienen café.	¿Tienen café?	Do you have coffee?

In speech, intonation helps listeners recognize the question. In writing, use both question marks. An explicit subject can remain before the verb, especially when it is the topic, or appear after it in many contexts: ¿Ana viene mañana? and ¿Viene Ana mañana? can both be possible, with differences in focus and naturalness according to context.

Opening and closing question marks

Write ¿ where the question begins and ? where it ends. If only part of a longer sentence is a question, only that part goes between the marks:

• Perdona, ¿dónde está la estación? — Excuse me, where is the station?
• Si tienes tiempo, ¿tomamos un café? — If you have time, shall we have a coffee?

The opening mark warns the reader from the start that question intonation and structure are coming. It is required in standard written Spanish, including messages and emails, even though informal texting sometimes omits it.

Examples in Context

Spanish	English	Note
¿Quién es?	Who is it?	Quién asks for a person’s identity.
¿Quiénes vienen a la fiesta?	Who is coming to the party?	Quiénes anticipates more than one person.
¿Con quién cenas esta noche?	Who are you having dinner with tonight?	The preposition comes before quién.
¿Qué haces los sábados?	What do you do on Saturdays?	No equivalent of English do is added.
¿Qué significa esta palabra?	What does this word mean?	Qué asks for a meaning.
¿Dónde vives?	Where do you live?	The verb ending identifies informal singular “you.”
¿De dónde son ustedes?	Where are you from?	De dónde asks about origin; ustedes is plural “you.”
¿Cuándo abre el museo?	When does the museum open?	The noun subject follows the verb.
¿Cómo estás hoy?	How are you today?	A routine question about someone’s condition.
¿Cómo se dice “ticket” en español?	How do you say “ticket” in Spanish?	A useful language-learning question.
¿Por qué estudias español?	Why do you study Spanish?	Por qué asks for a reason.
¿Trabajas aquí?	Do you work here?	A yes/no question with no question word.
Perdona, ¿hay un supermercado cerca?	Excuse me, is there a supermarket nearby?	Only the question is enclosed by question marks.
¿Viene Laura con nosotros?	Is Laura coming with us?	The explicit subject follows the verb.

Common Mistakes

Dropping the written accent

• Wrong: ¿Donde vives?
• Right: ¿Dónde vives?
• Why: Interrogative dónde carries an accent. The same applies to qué, quién, cuándo, cómo and por qué in direct questions.

Using only the closing question mark

• Wrong: Dónde está el baño?
• Right: ¿Dónde está el baño?
• Why: Standard Spanish places ¿ at the beginning of the question and ? at the end.

Adding an English-style form of “do”

• Wrong: ¿Haces tú vives aquí?
• Right: ¿Vives aquí?
• Why: Spanish does not insert a separate equivalent of English do/does to form ordinary present-tense questions. Conjugate the main verb normally.

Confusing por qué and porque

• Wrong: ¿Porque llegas tarde?
• Right: ¿Por qué llegas tarde?
• Why: Use two-word accented por qué to ask “why.” Use one-word porque to answer “because”: Porque hay tráfico.

Copying English preposition placement

• Wrong: ¿Quién hablas con?
• Right: ¿Con quién hablas?
• Why: Spanish normally puts the preposition before the question word: con quién, para quién, de dónde, a qué hora.

Forcing a subject pronoun into every question

• Less natural without contrast: ¿Dónde tú vives?
• Natural neutral question: ¿Dónde vives?
• Why: The ending -es already points to informal singular “you.” An explicit tú can add contrast or emphasis, but it should not be copied automatically from English word order.

Usage Notes

¿Cómo estás? is informal singular because estás matches tú. In a formal situation, ¿Cómo está usted? is safer; for more than one person, use ¿Cómo están? with ustedes. Patterns of informal and formal address vary across Spanish-speaking regions, but these forms are widely understood.

A question can be softened with a polite lead-in: Perdona, ¿dónde está...? (“Excuse me, where is...?”), Disculpe, ¿sabe dónde está...? (“Excuse me, do you know where...?”), or Por favor (“please”). Notice that perdona is informal and disculpe is formal.

In casual conversation, short questions are common when the context supplies the missing information: ¿Cuándo? (“When?”), ¿Con quién? (“With whom?”), or ¿Por qué? (“Why?”). These still keep their accents and written question marks.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following points at A1, but they explain forms you will soon encounter.

Indirect questions keep the accents

A direct question stands as a question: ¿Dónde vive? An indirect question embeds the missing information inside a larger sentence: No sé dónde vive (“I don’t know where he/she lives”) or Dime qué necesitas (“Tell me what you need”). The words dónde and qué keep their accents even though the whole sentence may not use question marks.

Compare a non-interrogative use without an accent: La casa donde vive (“the house where he/she lives”). Here donde connects the house with the following description rather than asking or expressing an unknown location.

Qué and cuál do not map neatly onto English

English often uses “what” where Spanish prefers cuál, especially when asking someone to identify one answer: ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? (“What is your phone number?”). Before a noun, qué is normally used: ¿Qué número necesitas? (“What number do you need?”). Selection, quantity, cuál/cuáles, and cuánto/a/os/as deserve separate study rather than a one-word translation rule.

Questions can express more than requests for information

Word choice and intonation can turn a question into an invitation, suggestion, surprise, or challenge:

• ¿Tomamos un café? — Shall we have a coffee?
• ¿Me ayudas? — Will you help me?
• ¿Cómo que no? — What do you mean, no?

Spanish also uses combined marks when a sentence is both exclamatory and interrogative, such as ¡¿Qué haces?! This is expressive punctuation, not the neutral pattern beginners need for ordinary questions.

Echo questions and subject focus

In conversation, a speaker may repeat surprising information as an echo question: ¿Vives en Islandia? (“You live in Iceland?”). Word order may look exactly like a statement; intonation and punctuation signal the reaction. Subject position can also shift the focus, so advanced Spanish cannot be reduced to a rigid inversion formula. For now, learn frequent complete questions as patterns and let exposure build your feel for their information focus.

Practice Tips

1. Build six question families. Choose one familiar verb and make a question with each core form: quién, qué, dónde, cuándo, cómo, and por qué. Say the answers aloud too.
2. Pair every “why” with a “because.” Write five mini-dialogues using ¿Por qué...? — Porque... This makes the spelling contrast automatic.
3. Listen for what writing shows. When hearing Spanish, notice rising or questioning intonation and identify whether the subject is stated. When writing the same sentence, add both ¿ and ? and check every interrogative accent.

Related Concepts

• Next step: Quantity & Selection Questions — learn cuánto/a/os/as, cuál/cuáles, and how Spanish asks about amounts and choices.