Forming Questions in Spanish

FORMING QUESTIONS There are FOUR ways to form questions in Spanish. Note that in English, we form a question using words like “Do,” “Does,” “Are,” etc. In Spanish we use “¿” at the beginning. ¿Hablas español? Do you speak Spanish? Question marks mean DO and DOES. In Spanish, we know the questions is coming of we can anticipate the question.

Step 1 Intonation: Raise your voice at the end of a sentence. ¿Ud Step 1 Intonation: Raise your voice at the end of a sentence. ¿Ud. es americano? ¿Ud. trabaja en IN-N-Out? ¿Juan vive en México? Practice by saying this to you amigo. Say the word “por qué” in a dramatic way

Step 2 Add a tag word: By adding the tags ¿no? or ¿verdad? at the end of a statement. Ud. habla inglés, ¿verdad? You speak English, right? Juan vive en México, ¿no? Juan lives in Mexico, doesn’t he? Verdad means (truth), but in a question it means “right?” Verdad means = truth , but in a question word it means “right? Tag questions are used when the speaker is trying to involve the listener in the conversation. The listener is put in the position of agreeing or disagreeing with the speaker.

Step 3 Verb first, then subject!! Start with a verb: The subject and the verb are switched. Subject may/may not follow, and the subject may be placed at the end of the sentence. ¿Habla Ud. inglés? Ud. habla inglés ¿Canta Juan en la clase? ¿Habla español Ud.? ¿ Estudia mucho? (question) (statement) verb subject subject verb verb subject Most students last year felt more comfortable using it the third example. Subject may not follow when using Tú, Yo, nosotros. Usaully the subject isn’t included. It is omitted Inverting= reversed (switched) or (swapped) verb subject verb Verb first, then subject!!

Practice: Verb first, then the subject! Do you guys Dance? ¿Bailan Uds.? 2. Does she walk to school? ¿Camina a la escuela ella? 3. ¿Do you sing a lot? ¿Cantas mucho ? Try to circle the verb and underline the subject

Step 4 Start with a question word: Start with the question word, then switch the verb and the subject. ¿Cómo estudia Ud.? ¿Dónde trabaja Juan? ¿De dónde son Alex y Joe?   How do you study? verb subject Where does Juan work? Explain that the question words are in order to the song, except for DE DONDE and explain the order of DE DONDE. You cannot end a question with a preposition in Spanish, which it is at the beginning of the question. Where are Alex and Joe from? In Spanish, you cannot put a preposition at the end of a question.

Question Words ¿Por qué? Why? ¿Con quién? With whom? ¿Cuándo? When? ¿Cuál? Which? ¿Qué? What? ¿A qué hora? At what time? ¿Dónde? Where? ¿Adónde? Where (to)? ¿Cuánto/a? How much? ¿De dónde? From where? ¿Cuántos/as? How many? ¿Hay? is/are there? ¿Cómo? How? ¿Quién? Who? ¿Adónde caminamos?. Where are we walking (to)? Most of these words are in the song. * All question words have accent marks on them. Accent marks are place either over the o, e, or a.

Prática 1. Do you guys work at Burger King? Translate to Spanish. Remember the rules when there is a question word! 1. Do you guys work at Burger King? ¿Trabajan en Burger King Uds.? 2. How does she prepare the dinner? ¿Cómo prepara la cena ella? 3. Do they walk to school? ¿Caminan a la escuela ellos? 4. When do they study? ¿Cuándo estudian ellos?

Prepositions in questions In Spanish, you may not end a sentence in a preposition, so the question word “where” must have any preposition in front of it, rather than at the end of the sentence. It is quite common to end a question about origin with a preposition in English: “Where is he from?” for example. The Spanish equivalent of, “Where is he from?” must be stated, “From where is he?” ( ¿De dónde es él?). The same is true for the preposition a (which means “to”). Sometimes, this preposition is not stated in an English sentence, but any time the question asks where a noun is headed (such as “Where are you going to?”), the word dónde must have a in front of or attached to it (¿A dónde vas tú? or ¿Adónde vas tú?).

Prepositions The personal a is used when the direct or indirect object of a sentence is a word that refers to a person. ¿A quién tiró la pelota? To whom did he [she, formal you] throw the ball? ¿A quién llamaste tú? Whom did you call? To indicate the possessor of an item in Spanish, the item is followed by the preposition de and the owner. To request this information, de is followed by the question words quién or quiénes, depending on whether you expect the owner to be one person or more. The English equivalents are “Whose?” or “Of whom?”: ¿De quién es el Pontiac azul en el aparcamiento? Whose is the blue Pontiac in the parking lot? ¿De quiénes son esos coches en la esquina?