Asking questions (AQA GCSE Spanish): Revision Notes
Asking questions
Being able to ask and understand questions is a crucial skill in Spanish, especially for your speaking exam where you'll need to ask questions during role-play activities. Let's explore the different ways to form questions in Spanish.
How to ask yes/no questions
Creating yes/no questions in Spanish is quite straightforward. You use exactly the same word order as you would for making a statement, but there are two key differences:
In writing: Add question marks at both the beginning (¿) and end (?) of your question. Remember, Spanish uses an upside-down question mark at the start - this is essential!
When speaking: Use a rising intonation at the end of your sentence, just like in English.
Yes/No Question Examples
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Estudias español? | Do you study Spanish? |
| ¿Quieres ir al polideportivo? | Do you want to go to the leisure centre? |
The beauty of this system is that you don't need to change the word order or add helping verbs like "do" or "does" as we do in English. This makes Spanish questions much simpler than English ones!
Asking open questions with question words
When you want to ask for specific information rather than just a yes/no answer, you'll need to use question words. These words always carry an accent mark when used in questions, so don't forget to include them in your writing!
Essential question words
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ¿Cuándo? | When? | ¿Cuándo llegas? (When do you arrive?) |
| ¿Dónde? | Where? | ¿Dónde vives? (Where do you live?) |
| ¿Adónde? | Where to? | ¿Adónde vas? (Where are you going?) |
| ¿Cuánto/a? | How much? | ¿Cuánto cuesta? (How much does it cost?) |
| ¿Cuántos/as? | How many? | ¿Cuántas personas hay? (How many people are there?) |
| ¿Qué? | What? | ¿Qué haces? (What are you doing?) |
| ¿Por qué? | Why? | ¿Por qué estudias español? (Why do you study Spanish?) |
| ¿Cómo? | How? | ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) |
| ¿Cuál(es)? | Which (ones)? | ¿Cuál prefieres? (Which do you prefer?) |
| ¿De dónde? | From where? | ¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?) |
Remember that ¿Cuánto? and ¿Cuántos? must agree with the gender and number of the noun they're asking about. This is a common mistake area - always check if the noun is masculine/feminine and singular/plural!
Using quién and quiénes
These question words are specifically used when asking about people. The choice between them depends on whether you're asking about one person or multiple people.
When to use each form
¿Quién? (Who?) - Use when asking about one person
¿Quiénes? (Who? - plural) - Use when asking about multiple people
Using ¿Quién? and ¿Quiénes?
Single person:
- ¿De quién es este cuaderno? (Whose is this exercise book?)
Multiple people:
- ¿A quiénes escribes? (Who are you writing to?)
- ¿Con quiénes vas de vacaciones? (Who are you going on holiday with?)
Important word order note
Pay attention to the word order in these examples:
- ¿Para quién son estas flores? (Who are these flowers for?)
- ¿Con quiénes vas de vacaciones? (Who are you going on holiday with?)
The preposition (para, con, etc.) comes before the question word, just as it would in the answer.
Question tags
In English, we have many different ways to ask for confirmation: "doesn't he?", "haven't they?", "can't you?". Spanish makes this much simpler! You can add ¿verdad? (literally "truth?") to the end of any statement to turn it into a question asking for confirmation.
Question Tag Examples
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Pablo es tu novio, verdad? | Pablo is your boyfriend, isn't he? |
| Te gusta la música, ¿verdad? | You like music, don't you? |
This is incredibly useful as you only need to remember one word rather than learning all the different tag questions that exist in English. ¿Verdad? works in every situation!
Practice exercise
Try to match these question words with their appropriate sentence completions:
Question words:
- ¿Cuál
- ¿Adónde
- ¿Quién
- ¿Dónde
- ¿Cuánto
- ¿Cuántas
- ¿Cómo
- ¿Cuándo
Sentence endings: a. cuesta? b. personas hay en tu clase? c. te llamas? d. es tu asignatura preferida? e. está Benidorm? f. fuiste de vacaciones el año pasado? g. es tu cumpleaños? h. es tu cantante preferido?
Answers:
1-d, 2-f, 3-h, 4-e, 5-a, 6-b, 7-c, 8-g
Translation practice
Spanish to English:
- ¿Dónde está tu hermana?
- ¿Con quién vas al cine?
English to Spanish: 3. How many brothers do you have? 4. What time is it?
Answers:
- Where is your sister?
- Who are you going to the cinema with?
- ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?
- ¿Qué hora es?
Key Points to Remember:
- Always use both ¿ and ? when writing questions in Spanish
- Don't forget the accent marks on question words - they're essential!
- Use rising intonation when speaking yes/no questions
- ¿Verdad? can be added to any statement to make it a confirmation question
- Choose between ¿quién? and ¿quiénes? based on whether you're asking about one or multiple people
- ¿Cuánto? must agree with the gender and number of the noun
- Prepositions come before question words, not after