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Preguntas
Knowing how to ask questions is essential for making plans, shopping, traveling, getting to know people, and any other activity that requires obtaining information.
"To ask" = preguntar: e.g.,
"He’s asking why." – Pregunta por qué.
But "to ask a question" = hacer una pregunta.
You cannot say preguntar una pregunta.
There are two different types of questions, and different ways to ask each type in Spanish.
Closed Questions | Yes-No Questions | Simple Questions
Preguntas cerradas | Preguntas de sí o no
Questions which allow a limited selection of answers – a simple "yes" or "no" – are called closed questions. In English, closed questions always start with "do," "be," or "have." There are 3 ways to ask these kinds of questions in Spanish:
1. Form a sentence and put question marks around it (when writing) or raise the intonation of your voice at the end (when speaking).
Por ejemplo…
| ¿María está aquí? | Is María here? | |
| ¿(Tú) tienes hambre?* | Are you hungry? |
2. Invert the subject and verb.
Por ejemplo…
| ¿Está María aquí? | Is María here? | |
| ¿Tienes (tú) hambre? | Are you hungry? |
3. With a question that you’re pretty sure will get a yes answer, you can use one of the following tags at the end:
- ¿no?
- ¿verdad?
- ¿no es verdad?
- ¿no es cierto?
Por ejemplo …
| Tienes hambre, ¿verdad? | You’re hungry, right? | |
| María está aquí, ¿no? | Maria is here, isn’t she? |
Open Questions | WH-Questions | Information Questions
Preguntas abiertas | Preguntas informativas
When you ask for information about who, what, when, etc., you’re asking an open question with a question word.**
1. To make a question with quién, use it as the subject of the sentence with the third person singular form of the verb.
Por ejemplo…
| ¿Quién tiene hambre? | Who is hungry? | |
| ¿Quién está aquí? | Who is here? |
2. For questions with other question words, start with the question word, then add the verb conjugated for the appropriate subject.
Por ejemplo…
| ¿Dónde estás? | Where are you? | |
| ¿Cuándo vamos a comer? | When are we going to eat? |
3. If you want to include the subject (as a noun, name, or subject pronoun), it goes at the end.
Por ejemplo…
| ¿Por qué llama Miguel? | Why is Miguel calling? | |
| ¿Qué hacen ellos? | What are they doing? |
* Notes
- Spanish has a two-part question mark: an upside-down question mark ¿ at the beginning of the question and ? at the end. Learn how to type ¿ and other special characters.
- Remember that the subject pronoun is optional.
** The question word(s) may be any of the following:
- Interrogative adjective (qué, cuál, cuánto) + noun
- Interrogative adverb (cómo, cuándo, cuánto, dónde, por qué)
- Interrogative pronoun (cuál, qué, quién)
Related lessons
- PwLS questions lessons – super list
- Verb conjugations: preguntar | hacer
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