The 9 Spanish question words, with examples for each
The Spanish question words are qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde, quién, cuál, cuánto, por qué and de quién. Every one carries a written accent when it asks a question, and the whole question sits between an opening ¿ and a closing ?. Qué asks for a definition; cuál asks you to choose.
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
The list
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ¿Qué? | What? | ¿Qué estás haciendo? |
| ¿Cómo? | How? What’s it like? | ¿Cómo estás? |
| ¿Cuándo? | When? | ¿Cuándo es la cena? |
| ¿Dónde? | Where? | ¿Dónde está el baño? |
| ¿Quién? / ¿Quiénes? | Who? | ¿Quiénes son ellos? |
| ¿De quién? | Whose? | ¿De quién es esto? |
| ¿Cuál? / ¿Cuáles? | Which? | ¿Cuál es tu número? |
| ¿Cuánto? / ¿Cuántos? | How much? How many? | ¿Cuánto cuesta? |
| ¿Por qué? | Why? | ¿Por qué estás feliz? |
Four of them have plurals, and they agree with what they are asking about: ¿quién? for one person, ¿quiénes? for several. ¿Cuánto? goes further and agrees in gender too — ¿cuántos años?, ¿cuántas personas?
Two rules of writing
The accent is compulsory. Every one of these words carries a written accent when it is asking. The same words without the accent exist and mean something else entirely:
- ¿Qué quieres? — what do you want? · Sé que quieres — I know that you want
- ¿Cómo estás? — how are you? · Como tú — like you
- ¿Por qué? — why? · Porque — because · El porqué — the reason
Both question marks. Spanish opens with ¿ and closes with ?. The opening mark is not decorative — it tells a reader that a question is starting, which matters because Spanish word order often does not.
What each one actually asks
Qué — a definition or an explanation. ¿Qué es cordero? ¿Qué hora es? ¿Qué es eso?
Cómo — manner, or what someone or something is like. ¿Cómo estás? (how are you), ¿Cómo es él? (what’s he like).
Cuándo — time. ¿Cuándo es el almuerzo con Mariana? ¿Cuándo estás en la casa?
Dónde — place. ¿Dónde está la farmacia? ¿Dónde estás? Notice these take estar, because location always does.
Quién — people. ¿Quién es Taylor Swift? ¿Con quién estás?
Cuánto — quantity or price. ¿Cuánto cuesta? ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?
Qué or cuál
The one genuine trap, because English uses what for both.
- Qué asks for a definition or a category. ¿Qué es tu número? would be asking what a phone number is as a concept.
- Cuál asks you to pick one out of a set. ¿Cuál es tu número? — which of all the numbers is yours. This is the normal question.
So: ¿Cuál es tu nombre?, ¿Cuál es tu dirección?, ¿Cuál prefieres? But ¿Qué es esto? and ¿Qué significa? Before a noun, Spanish almost always takes qué: ¿Qué libro quieres?
The Lima version
Two questions you will use in your first week here, and neither is the textbook phrasing.
“¿Cuánto me cobra?” — how much do you charge me. This is the taxi question, and it uses cobrar rather than costar because you are asking the person, not the price list. The whole script is in Spanish for taking a taxi in Lima.
“¿Cómo así?” — how come? Softer than ¿por qué?, which can land as a demand for justification. Peruvians reach for the softer version constantly.
Next
You now have enough to hold a short conversation: name yourself, describe something, say where it is, and ask about it. The rest of the course builds verbs onto that frame.
Topics Asking questionsPeruvian SpanishGetting around
Qué, cuál, cuánto
Eight questions on the nine question words, the accents they carry, and the *qué* or *cuál* problem English creates.
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1*¿___ es tu número?*
Answer
Cuál — *Cuál* asks you to pick one out of a set, which is what a phone number is. *¿Qué es tu número?* would be asking what a number is as a concept.
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2*¿___ cuesta?* — how much is it?
Answer
Cuánto — *Cuánto* is quantity and price. It also agrees with what it is asking about: *¿cuántos hermanos?*, *¿cuántas personas?*
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3*¿___ libro quieres?*
Answer
Qué — Directly before a noun, Spanish almost always takes *qué* — even where English says *which*. *Cuál* stands on its own: *¿cuál prefieres?*
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4*Sé ___ quieres un café* — I know that you want a coffee.
Answer
que — No accent, because nothing is being asked — this *que* is *that*. The accent on *qué* is what marks it as a question word.
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5*¿___ personas hay?*
Answer
Cuántas — *Cuánto* agrees in gender as well as number, and *personas* is feminine plural. *¿Cuántos años?* takes the masculine for the same reason.
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6*¿Por qué?* can land as a demand for justification. The softer version Peruvians reach for is:
Answer
¿Cómo así? — *¿Cómo así?* is *how come* — curious rather than challenging. Peruvians use it constantly where a direct *¿por qué?* would feel blunt.
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7In a taxi you ask *¿cuánto me cobra?* rather than *¿cuánto cuesta?* because:
Answer
you are asking the person what they charge, not what a price list says — *Cobrar* is what the driver does to you, and the question opens a negotiation rather than reading off a fixed price. It is the Lima phrasing for a Lima situation.
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8Which is “whose is this?”
Answer
¿De quién es esto? — Spanish has no single word for *whose* — it builds it as *de quién*. *¿Qué es esto?* asks what the thing is instead.