Learn how to make questions and question tags in Spanish
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are questions made in Spanish? |
| Cesar: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Claudia Borrego Contreras is asking her neighbours whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Claudia Borrego Contreras: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Dialogue |
| Claudia Borrego Contreras: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Mark Lee: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Claudia Borrego Contreras: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: "We are going, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you will learn how to form questions in Spanish. One of the ways is to use a rising intonation at the end of a statement to easily turn it into a question. For example, starting with a statement: |
| Cesar: Raúl quiere empezar la reunión ahora. |
| Michael: "Raul wants to start the meeting now.". To turn it into a question, we can just raise the intonation at the end of the sentence, so: |
| Cesar: ¿Raúl quiere empezar la reunión ahora? |
| Michael: "Does Raul want to start the meeting now?". Also, notice that we use the inverted question mark, |
| Cesar: signo de interrogación [¿] |
| Michael: to begin a question in written Spanish. At the end of the sentence, we use a second question mark, written in the same way as in the English one [?]. |
| Another way to form questions in Spanish is using inversion. In this case, we invert the word order of the subject pronoun (those corresponding to: "I", "you", "he", "she", etc.) and the verb. A simple example would be: |
| Cesar: ¿Tiene usted hambre? |
| Michael: literally, "Do you have hunger?", but used with the meaning of "Are you hungry?". To form the question, we inverted the word order of the subject pronoun, "you" (formal): |
| Cesar: Ud. |
| Michael: and the verb "to have", conjugated for that person of speech: |
| Cesar: tiene |
| Michael: Obtaining the question: |
| Cesar: ¿Tiene Ud. hambre? |
| Michael: "Are you hungry?". If it were an affirmative sentence, the regular word order would be: |
| Cesar: Ud. tiene hambre. |
| Michael: As in Spanish, it's common to omit the subject pronoun. We could say: |
| Cesar: ¿Tiene hambre? |
| Michael: "Are you hungry?", using a rising intonation at the end of the sentence, so that it clearly indicates a question. |
| When the sentence has two consecutive verbs, to invert the word order, we put the subject pronoun after the phrase that has the second verb. For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta Uds? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" Again, as it's common to omit the subject pronoun in Spanish, we can say: |
| Cesar: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?", which is the first question of the conversation said by Claudia. |
| Lastly, another way to make questions in Spanish is by using question tags, which are phrases that we add to the end of an affirmative sentence, turning it into a question. |
| In the conversation, Mark Lee says: "We are going, aren't we?" |
| Cesar: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: The use of: |
| Cesar: ¿verdad? |
| Michael: Literally: "truth", but used as a question tag according to each sentence, so that, in the example, it means "aren't we?", makes the example sentence a question. |
| Let's see another example: |
| Cesar: Hace mucho frío hoy, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: "It 's very cold today, isn’t it?". |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned how questions are made in Spanish and also about using question tags. Now, let’s look at some examples. Our first example is: |
| Cesar: ¿El cliente quiere cambiar el producto hoy? |
| Michael: "Does the customer want to exchange the product today?". In this case, we used intonation at the end of the sentence to clearly make it into a question. The next example is: |
| Cesar: ¿Quieren almorzar más tarde Uds.? |
| Michael: "Do you want to have lunch later?". As you've learned, we can use inversion to make questions in Spanish. In this case, we inverted the subject pronoun "you": |
| Cesar: Uds. |
| Michael: placing it at the end of the sentence, as it has two consecutive verbs. Also, as it's common to omit the subject pronoun in Spanish, we could simply say: |
| Cesar: ¿Quieren almorzar más tarde? |
| Michael: "Do you want to have lunch later?" |
| Our last example is: |
| Cesar: Hoy es la fiesta de Inez, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: "Today is Inez's party, isn't it?", or "Today is Inez's party, right?". As you've already learned, adding a question tag at the end of the sentence turns it into a question in Spanish. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: We can also use interrogative words to make questions in Spanish. In English, the so-called "wh-words" are often used. They are: "who," "what," "when," "where," and "why," and we also have "how," "how much," and "how many." Let's check their counterparts in Spanish: |
| Cesar: ¿Quién? |
| Michael: meaning "Who?" can be used when inquiring about the identity of a single person. For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Quién es la chica de la película? |
| Michael: "Who is the girl in the movie?". For inquiring about more than one person, we'll use the plural interrogative word: |
| Cesar: ¿Quiénes? |
| Michael: For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Quiénes son aquellas personas? |
| Michael: "Who are those people?". Next, there's: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué? |
| Michael: meaning "What?". This is the all-purpose interrogative word: you can use it to inquire about a definition or an explanation of something. Let's look at some examples: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué es eso? |
| Michael: "What's that?" |
| Cesar: ¿Qué estás haciendo? |
| Michael: "What are you doing?" informal. Next, there's: |
| Cesar: ¿Cuándo? |
| Michael: "When?", used to ask about "when" something happens. For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? |
| Michael: "When is the party?". Let's check out the next one: |
| Cesar: ¿Dónde? |
| Michael: "Where", used to inquire about the location or position of something or someone. Let's see some examples: |
| Cesar: ¿Dónde están mis gafas? |
| Michael: "Where are my glasses?" |
| Cesar: ¿Dónde estás? |
| Michael: "Where are you?" informal. Next, there's: |
| Cesar: ¿Por qué? |
| Michael: meaning "Why?", used to ask about the reason for something. For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Por qué vas a salir tan temprano? |
| Michael: "Why are you leaving so early?". Our next interrogative word is: |
| Cesar: ¿Cómo? |
| Michael: "How", used to ask for more information, or an explanation. For example: |
| Cesar: ¿Cómo llego a la estación? |
| Michael: "How can I reach the station?". |
| We use the next question words: |
| Cesar: ¿Cuánto? / ¿Cuánta? |
| ¿Cuántos? / ¿Cuántas? |
| Michael: As "How much" and "How many", respectively. For neuter concepts, use the masculine: |
| Cesar: ¿Cuánto? |
| Michael: When referring to a specific noun, this word will agree in person and number with the noun in question. Let's look at some examples: |
| Cesar: ¿Cuánto dinero vas a llevar? |
| Michael: "How much money will you take?" informal. |
| Cesar: ¿Cuánta leche lleva la receta? |
| Michael: "How much milk does the recipe take?" |
| Cesar: ¿Cuántos cuadernos has comprado? |
| Michael: "How many notebooks have you bought?" informal. |
| Cesar: ¿Cuántas naranjas vas a comprar? |
| Michael: "How many oranges will you buy?" formal. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Cesar focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Claudia Borrego Contreras asks "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Cesar as Claudia Borrego Contreras: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Cesar: ¿Van a venir a nuestra fiesta? |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark Lee says "We are going, aren't we?" |
| Cesar as Mark Lee: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar as Mark Lee: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Cesar as Mark Lee: Vamos a ir, ¿verdad? |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Michael: The question word: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué? |
| Michael: meaning "How?" can also be used to assess what someone thinks about something, whether they liked something or not, for example: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué tal el helado? ¿Te gusta? |
| Michael: "How is the ice cream? Do you like it?" informal. |
| It is also used in a greeting as in: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué tal? |
| Michael: literally: "How is it?", but used with the meaning of "How are you?" or "How's it going?". |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide