Interrogative sentences in Spanish are used for asking questions, and they are built differently than English. Plus, the format of your question will warrant a different type of answer: a yes/no answer, or an answer that requires more than that.
Interrogative sentences can have different classifications, as follows:
Yes/no interrogatives (For example: ¿Quieres comer? meaning Do you want to eat?)
Choice interrogatives (For example: ¿Qué quieres comer? meaning What do you want to eat?)
In this post, we will go over how to build different types of interrogatives in Spanish. Are you ready to rock and roll? Let’s check out interrogative sentences in Spanish and how to build them!
If you want to know more about general Spanish word order, check out our post on the basics of Spanish sentence structure.
How to form yes/no interrogatives in Spanish?
Yes/no interrogatives (AKA closed interrogatives) do not have an interrogative pronoun or adverb (words like qué meaning what or dónde meaning where). In Spanish, they usually have the same structure as a declarative sentence (subject verb object). What’s most important with these interrogatives is that in order to distinguish them from statements, in speech you’ll need to raise your intonation at the end of the question. And, in writing, you’ll need to use the interrogation signs (¿ and ?) at the beginning and end of your question!
Check out this example of a yes/no interrogative:
There are two more ways of building yes/no interrogatives:
Subject-verb inversion
With this method, the conjugated verb goes at the beginning of the question, followed by the subject, and then the rest of the question.
Examples:
verbsubject¿Ana llega mañana? →
¿Llega Ana mañana?Translation: Does Ana arrive tomorrow?invert the subject and the verb!¿Tu amiga te pagó los boletos? →
¿Te pagó tu amiga los boletos?Translation: Did your friend pay you for the tickets?don’t forget your rising intonation!Subject-verb inversion is the preferred method to ask yes/no questions in Spanish, because the inversion tells you it is a question and not a statement. Without inversion, the listener has to rely on the speaker’s intonation to know that it’s a question or on the question marks when writing.
Question tag
A question tag is used when the speaker is asking for confirmation or denial of a statement. The expectation is that the listener will be in agreement with the speaker.
To build these, you will need to create a basic statement, then end it with the question tag, surrounded by the interrogation signs.
Some useful question tag words are the following:
¿Cierto? meaning Right?
¿No es cierto? meaning Isn't that so?
¿No? meaning No?
¿Verdad? meaning Right?
Examples:
- Tú no comes comida con gluten, ¿verdad?Translation: You do not eat food with gluten, right?
- Estela va al cine con nosotros, ¿no?Translation: Estela is going to the movies with us, no?
How to form choice interrogatives in Spanish?
Choice interrogatives are formed using interrogative words. In writing, don’t forget to use interrogation signs (¿ and ?) at the beginning and end of your question, and add the accent on the question word! There are two types of choice interrogatives (AKA open interrogatives): direct questions, which are your basic run of the mill questions, and indirect questions. For both types, the rule of thumb is to invert the subject and the verb. Let’s take a look at this in detail.
Direct questions
These questions place an interrogative pronoun (quién meaning who, qué meaning what, cuál meaning which , etc.) at the beginning of the question. Direct questions can’t be answered with a yes or no. They require more information.
The structure of direct questions in Spanish is as follows:
interrogativeverbsubject¿Qué hizo Juan?Translation: What did Juan do?¿Adónde fuiste?Translation: Where did you go?Questions with objects
So far we’ve seen short questions, but what if you want to ask a question with a verb that has an object? Building interrogatives with objects can vary in Spanish.
The order for the question can be:
Interrogative
Verb
Object
Subject
Or it can be:
Interrogative
Verb
Subject
Object
How do you choose what order is best? It’s based on the length of the object. If the object is shorter than the subject, place it before the subject. For example:
interrogativeverbobjectsubject¿Por qué compró los aguacates la compañera de cuarto de tu hermano?Translation: Why did your brother’s roommate buy the avocados?However, if the object is longer than the subject, place it at the end of the question:
interrogativeverbsubjectobject¿Dónde consiguieron tus papás los ingredientes para el pozole?Translation: Where did your parents find the ingredients for the pozole?
Indirect questions
Another way of asking questions is by using indirect or reported speech. Indirect questions are found in subordinate clauses following expressions like: me pregunto… meaning I wonder, no sé… meaning I don’t know, no entiendo… meaning I don’t understand. Indirect questions also use interrogative words (don’t forget the accent!), but don’t require question marks.
The word order for indirect questions is as follows (remember this happens in the subordinate clause):
Main clause
Interrogative
Verb
Subject
Me pregunto por qué no vino Juan.Translation: I wonder why Juan didn’t come.If the subordinate clause contains a complement, simply place it at the end.
main clauseinterrogativeverbsubjectcomplementNo sabemos dónde puso Luis las llaves.Translation: We don’t know where Luis put the keys.Me pregunto con quién fue Ana al cine.Translation: I wonder with whom Ana went to the movies.
To sum it up
In Spanish and in English we have very similar types of questions: yes/no, direct, and indirect questions. However, there are some notable differences: the lack of helping words like “do/does” and the inversion between the subject and verb. To summarize:
For yes/no questions, rising intonation is crucial. While you can continue the subject verb pattern, you can also add variety by inverting the subject/verb or by using a tag question at the end of a statement.
Direct questions normally place the interrogative at the beginning followed by verb subject (object). However, depending on the length of the object, you can move it before the subject if it’s short or keep it after the subject if it’s longer than the subject.
Indirect questions live in subordinate clauses, and they still keep the same order of direct questions: Interrogative + Verb + Subject (Object). However, they do not need question marks, as they follow expressions that imply a question follows.
If you want to practice word order for interrogatives and sentences, check our activities out!
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