Spanish runs its questions on eight accented words: qué (what), cuál (which), quién (who), cómo (how), dónde (where), cuándo (when), cuánto (how much), and por qué (why). Every one of them wears a written accent, and every question they open sits between an upside-down ¿ and a regular ?. Two of them set the classic trap: qué and cuál both come out as what in English, and picking the wrong one in front of the verb ser is the single most common question mistake learners make. Here are all eight with audio, the corpus numbers on how they behave, and the three mix-ups worth sorting out early.
The question words, with audio
These are the question rows from the basics theme of Vocabcord's A1 Spanish set, the bare words first and then the ready-made questions built from them. Frequency puts them at the very start of the language: the Spanish track for English speakers holds 2,355 phrases graded A1 to C2, and of its 18 entries that are questions in their own right, 15 sit at A1. Only three greetings (¿Qué tal?, ¿Qué pasa?, ¿Cómo está usted?) wait until A2. Tap the play button on any row to hear it.
| Spanish | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| ¿Qué? | What? | What? I didn't hear you. |
| ¿Cómo? | How? | How does this work? |
| ¿Dónde? | Where? | Where is the station? |
| ¿Cuándo? | When? | When does the train leave? |
| ¿Quién? | Who? | Who is that woman? |
| ¿Por qué? | Why? | Why are you sad? |
| ¿Cuánto cuesta? | How much? | How much is this? |
| ¿Cuántos? | How many? | How many people came? |
| ¿Dónde está el baño? | Where is the bathroom? | Where is the bathroom, please? |
| ¿De dónde eres? | Where are you from? | Where are you from originally? |
| ¿Puedes ayudarme? | Can you help me? | Can you help me with this? |
| ¿Hablas inglés? | Do you speak English? | Excuse me, do you speak English? |
Notice what the punctuation is doing: Spanish brackets a question at both ends, so the opening ¿ warns you the sentence is a question before you have read a word of it. Across the whole track, 105 example sentences are questions, which makes this small set of words some of the hardest-working vocabulary in the corpus.
Qué vs cuál: the trap in front of ser
Both words translate as what or which, so English gives you no help choosing. The rule that actually works: cuál picks one item out of a set that exists (your name, out of all names; your number, out of all numbers), while qué asks what something is or means. That is why What is your name? becomes ¿Cuál es tu nombre? in Spanish. Ask ¿Qué es tu nombre? and you have requested a philosophical definition of names in general.
The corpus shows how lopsided real usage is. Cuál appears in 12 example sentences across the entire Spanish track, and all 12 place it directly in front of a form of ser: ¿Cuál es tu color favorito?, ¿Cuál es el precio?, ¿Cuál es tu opinión sobre esto?, and in the past tense, ¿Cuál fue la causa del incendio?. Treat ¿Cuál es...? as one welded unit for asking someone's name, number, address, opinion, or favorite anything, and the trap loses its teeth.
Qué covers everything else and works far harder: setting por qué aside, it still turns up in 30 entries of the track against cuál's 12. It stands alone (¿Qué? No te he oído.), it goes in front of verbs (¿Qué tiempo hace hoy?, the stock question from our weather guide), and it is the word Spanish puts before a noun where English might use which: ¿Qué color prefieres?. You will hear cuál before a noun in parts of Latin America, and it is understood everywhere, but qué is the safe default. For people, switch to quién (¿Quién es esa mujer?), and mark the plural: cuáles and quiénes when the answer should come back plural.
Dónde, de dónde, and adónde
Dónde asks where something is, and Spanish almost always pairs it with estar: ¿Dónde está la estación?, ¿Dónde está mi teléfono?, and the most rehearsed sentence in any phrasebook, ¿Dónde está el baño?. Put de in front and the question turns to origin: ¿De dónde eres? (where are you from?). The track holds seven dónde questions, six of them built on está and the seventh on eres, so location and origin cover everything a beginner meets.
The third form appears once movement enters. When the verb is ir or anything else that travels, Spanish puts an a on the front: ¿Adónde vas? (where are you going?). Both spellings, adónde and a dónde, are accepted, so write whichever you can remember. A tidy way to hold all three: de dónde looks backward to where you came from, dónde stands still, and adónde points forward to where you are headed.
Por qué, para qué, and the porque that answers
¿Por qué?, two words with an accent, asks for a cause: ¿Por qué estás triste? (why are you sad?). The answer arrives as porque, one word, no accent: Porque te quiero (because I love you). The A1 set carries the pair as separate entries, the question filed with the basics and the answer filed with connector words like y, pero, and si, and hearing them side by side is the fastest way to stop confusing the spellings. There is even a noun version, el porqué, meaning the reason.
¿Para qué? is the forward-looking sibling. Where por qué digs into what caused something, para qué asks what it is for: ¿Por qué estudias español? wants the story behind your decision, while ¿Para qué estudias español? wants the goal ahead of it. The natural answer to para qué is para plus an infinitive: para viajar, to travel. English folds both into why, so learners tend to over-use por qué; that always gets understood, and reaching for para qué when you mean purpose is a cheap way to sound precise.
The accent mark is doing real work
Every Spanish question word has an unaccented twin that connects instead of asking: que means that, como means as or like, donde and cuando link clauses, quien refers back to a person, cuanto measures. The written accent (and, in speech, the stress you put on the word) is what flips it into a question. The A1 set holds a clean pair: ¿Cuándo? lives with the question words (¿Cuándo sale el tren?, when does the train leave?) while plain cuando lives with the connectors (Cuando llegues, when you arrive).
The accent survives even when the question hides inside a statement. Take the corpus phrase No sé la respuesta (I don't know the answer) and point it at a question instead: No sé cuándo sale el tren. No question marks anywhere, yet cuándo keeps its accent because there is still a real question buried in the sentence. That single habit, accent whenever something is genuinely being asked, gets the spelling right almost every time.
Eight words, met daily
Question words repay repetition like nothing else in the language, since one of them opens nearly every sentence you will ever need from a stranger. The real work is meeting them again tomorrow, and the day after, without booking study time to do it. Vocabcord hangs that repetition on a habit you already have: plug your phone in to charge and a phrase from your level plays out loud, with audio, resurfacing on a schedule that brings each word back before it fades. The eight words above are in the A1 set from day one, ranked by frequency so they arrive early. Get Vocabcord on the App Store and let ¿dónde? find you at the wall socket.
Common questions
What are the question words in Spanish?
Spanish has eight core question words: qué (what), cuál (which), quién (who), cómo (how), dónde (where), cuándo (when), cuánto (how much), and por qué (why). All of them carry a written accent, and cuál, quién, and cuánto change form for plural (cuáles, quiénes, cuántos).
When do you use cuál instead of qué?
Use cuál to pick one item from a real set, especially in front of ser: ¿Cuál es tu nombre? (what is your name?), ¿Cuál es el precio? (what is the price?). Use qué to ask what something is or means (¿Qué es esto?) and in front of nouns (¿Qué color prefieres?).
What is the difference between dónde and adónde?
Dónde asks where something is: ¿Dónde está el baño?. Adónde asks where someone is going, with movement verbs like ir: ¿Adónde vas?. Both spellings adónde and a dónde are accepted. For origin, use de dónde: ¿De dónde eres? (where are you from?).
Why do Spanish question words have accent marks?
The accent separates the question word from its unaccented twin, which connects clauses instead of asking: ¿cuándo? means when? while cuando means when as in when you arrive. The accent stays in indirect questions too (No sé cuándo sale el tren), because something is still being asked.
