This fourth phrase is more troublesome than the rest.
Note that with these last two examples the conjugated verbs match cuáles in plural form ( ellos / ellas). If you are expecting the question to have more than one answer, you can also use this structure with cuáles as follows:Įnglish: Which of your friends know Spanish?Įspañol: ❼uáles de tus amigos saben español?Įnglish: Which of your cousins went to your wedding?Įspañol: ❼uáles de tus primas fueron a tu boda? You use ❼uál de…? when you want to ask “which of … (these options) …?”.Įnglish: Which of your siblings is the tallest?Įspañol: ❼uál de tus hermanos es el más alto?Įnglish: Which of these paintings do you prefer?Įspañol: ❼uál de estas pinturas prefieres? This third question phrase is a lot more obvious than the previous two and is much easier to translate between English and Spanish. Note in these last two examples we have a ‘what’ and a ‘which’ in English becoming cuáles in Spanish. For example,Įnglish: What are your favorite memories of the trip?Įspañol: ❼uáles son tus recuerdos favoritos del viaje? In addition to ❼uál es…?, you can also ask about plural options using ❼uáles son…?.
There are many questions in English that start with “What is…?” that you can answer with a number of possible options.Įspañol: ❼uál es el plan este fin de semana?. It is really tempting to translate “What is…?” to ¿Qué es…?. Of course, you can also ask someone’s name using a reflexive verb in combination with cómo.Īs I mentioned earlier, we see a lot of Spanish students making mistakes with this construction. If you want to ask someone’s name using a construction where you need to decide between qué vs cuál, you must use cuál. In fact, ❼uál es…? should be one of your go-to questions for asking about anything where more than one answer is possible.įurthermore, you still need this construction even when it feels like there is only one answer such as asking someone’s name. If your question isn’t related to the definition of an idea or concept but instead could have a variety of answers, you may need this second question phrase. If you think the answer to your question would be in a dictionary then start your question with ¿Qué es…?. Think of ¿Qué es…? as asking “What is the definition of…?”.Įnglish: What is (the definition of) a country?Įnglish: What is (the definition of) a family name?Įnglish: What is (the definition of) a sentence? If you are, you’ll need this first question phrase. The first thing you should ask yourself: are you looking for the definition of a word or phrase? Let’s look at each question phrase in more detail. Note we see students in our Spanish classes making the most mistakes with the second and fourth constructions (I’ll explain why in the relevant sections below). Now, instead of translating ‘what?’ and ‘which?’, you simply need to choose between one of the above question phrases. In the last few examples, ‘( verbo)’ represents a conjugated verb, and ‘( sustantivo)’ represents any Spanish noun you may want to use in your question. Moreover, any question that you could possibly want to ask in Spanish based around options or definitions could fit into one of these 6 question phrases. 
But, the good news is there are only 6 phrases you need to know.
What this means is you now have more things memorise. Instead, you’ll be much better off if you think of qué and cuál in phrase combinations with either a verb, noun, or preposition. And, you may even spend unnecessary time thinking about the correct use of ‘what?’ and ‘which?’ in English. You’ll likely end up going around in circles if you try to directly translate these English question words.
Sounds like a plan spanish idiom how to#
If you want to learn how to use qué and cuál properly in Spanish, you first need to stop thinking of these two Spanish questions words as the translation of ‘what?’ and ‘which?’.
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