Basics of Asking Questions in Spanish

Forming Basic Questions

Questions in Spanish can be direct (yes/no questions) or indirect (open-ended questions).
In Spanish, upside-down question marks (¿) and exclamation points (¡) are placed at the beginning of questions and exclamations, as well as the regular ones at the end. For example, “¿Cómo estás?” means “How are you?”
In Yes/No questions, you can just say the sentence with a rising intonation at the end, it would be understood as a question. For example, “¿Hablas español?” means “Do you speak Spanish?”
For indirect questions, you’d generally start with a question word. For example, “¿Qué haces?” means “What are you doing?”

Spanish Question Words

Important question words to remember in Spanish are: ¿Qué? (What?), ¿Quién? (Who?), ¿Dónde? (Where?), ¿Cuándo? (When?), ¿Por qué? (Why?), ¿Cómo? (How?), ¿Cuántos? (How many?)
It’s important to note that when asking “who” in plural, you say, “¿Quiénes?” instead of “¿Quién?” For example, “¿Quiénes son?” means “Who are they?”
The word “¿Cuántos?” is used to ask “how many?” if it refers to a masculine noun and “¿Cuántas?” if it refers to a feminine one.

Word Order in Questions

In questions, the verb usually comes before the subject. For example, “¿Dónde está el baño?” translates to “Where is the bathroom?” not “The bathroom is where?”
However, in yes/no questions, the subject can occasionally appear before the verb, e.g. “¿Tú hablas español?” (Do you speak Spanish?)

Polite Questions

To make questions more polite, you can use “¿Podría…?” or “¿Puede…?” which mean “Could you…?” or “Can you…?” respectively. For example, “¿Podría decirme dónde está la estación?” translating to “Could you tell me where the station is?”
You can also use “por favor” at the end of a question to make it more polite. For example, “¿Podrías pasar la sal, por favor?” translating to “Could you pass the salt, please?”

Remember, when practicing Spanish it’s not only important to practice forming questions, but also answer them as this helps you get a better grasp of the language.