Questions

Question Formation

In Spanish, questions can be constructed in a manner similar to English, i.e., a subject followed by a verb. For instance, “¿Tú vives aquí?” translates to “Do you live here?”
Additionally, Spanish questions can also be made by switching the place of verb and subject, i.e., a verb followed by a subject. In the previous example, it can be rephrased as “¿Vives tú aquí?” meaning the same.
Invert the noun and verb when asking questions with a verb. For example, “Are you reading?” would be “¿Estás leyendo?”, in which “estás” is the verb and “leyendo” is the action.
Typically, Spanish speakers do not use the auxiliary “do” in questions as we do in English. So, while in English we’d say “Do you want to eat lunch?”, in Spanish it would be “¿Quieres comer el almuerzo?”

Question words in Spanish include:
- ¿Qué? – What?
- ¿Quién? – Who?
- ¿Cuándo? – When?
- ¿Dónde? – Where?
- ¿Por qué? – Why?
- ¿Cómo? – How?
- ¿Cuánto/a/os/as? – How much/many?
Be aware of the accentuation in question words, which often differentiates them from their statement counterparts. For instance, “qué” means “what,” but “que” translates to “that.”

To confirm something, use question tags. In Spanish, the question tags are ¿verdad? (right?), ¿no? (isn’t it?) etc. They can be added at the end of the sentence. For example, “Ella es bonita, ¿Verdad?” which translates to “She is pretty, right?”
Don’t forget that Spanish questions always start with an inverted question mark (¿) and end with the normal question mark (?).

Remember to practise often and regularly, whether it’s through writing or speaking, to improve fluency in asking questions in Spanish.