1. Art and Diseño

Lesson 1F
Using ¿Cómo? and ¿Qué?
Lesson 1C was all about what to say when you first meet someone. After saying
“Hello”, the next thing you want to do is ask questions!! In organizing the curriculum for
this Spanish course, we felt that being able to form questions and understanding
“interrogative words” was essential for being able to communicate in Spanish!! What we
are finding in other textbooks and materials on the internet, is rarely are specific
“question words” taught individually. Most resources group all of these words together in
one presentation. So we asked ourselves, “Selves … maybe we shouldn’t change our
plans??” But over time, we have decided that focusing on forming questions in Spanish,
really helps us to feel comfortable in speaking and initiating conversations. It is
essential!! So, we are continuing with our original plan and finding that “question words”
taught in one presentation could be a great method of learning new words, reviewing
words already taught, and introducing words for future lessons!! So we’ll be utilizing
many different web links and video clips in our “question words” lessons that will
include words we have learned, are learning, and will be learning later in the course!!
Exciting!! So lets begin:
Probably, the most commonly used “interrogative words” in English and Spanish are
“¿cómo? – what/how? and “qué? – what/how?”. Notice that both of these words appear
to have the same English translation, but they are not interchangeable!! Depending on the
situation and information needed, only one of these question words is commonly used!
Actually, you have already seen both of these words in asking some basic questions in
the dialogues from lesson 1C!!
Question word “¿Cómo?”: Usually the question word “¿Cómo? is translated into
English as “How?”. It is used to ask about something/someone and also to question the
degree or intensity of something.
¿Cómo estás (informal)?
How are you?
¿Cómo sabe ella la respuesta?
How does she know the answer?
¿Cómo se dice happy en Español?
How is happy said in Spanish?
¿Cómo cocina el pollo?
How do you cook chicken?
¿Cómo está Ud. (formal)?
How are you, sir(madam)?
¿Cómo te llamas
What is your name?
(informal)?
¿Cómo se llama (formal)?
What is your name?
(* Just a bit of explanation about the
phrases above. This is the most common way
of asking someone’s name, but the most
correct (literal) translation would be “How do
you call yourself?” The Spanish verb
“llamarse” is a reflexive verb that will be
taught later in this course.)
¿Cómo se dice “happy” en Español?
How is “happy” said in Spanish?
(* This is a great Spanish question to
know!! I used it all the time with my Chilean
companions, but instead of saying an English
word (That wouldn’t have helped me!!), I
would just say ¿Cómo se dice? ... and to
point to things!!)
¿Cómo? – Huh?/What?: Normally in asking a question, ¿cómo?
means how?, but when ¿Cómo? is used by itself, it means huh? or
what? It is used to ask for a repetition of what was just said … when a
person doesn’t understand, doesn’t hear clearly what has just been said,
or just wasn´t paying attention!!
What?/Huh?/Pardon?
¿Cómo?/¿Mande?/¿Perdón?
Question word “¿Qué?”: Usually the question word “¿Qué? is translated into
English as “What?”. It is used to ask for a definition or an explanation.
¿Qué es? -Es un animal.
What is it? -It is an animal.
¿Qué tienes? -Tengo un dólar.
What do you have? -I have a/one dollar.
¿Qué estudias? -Estudio Español.
What do you study? -I study Spanish.
¿Qué tal?
What’s up?/How’s everything?
Here are a few basic rules for asking questions in Spanish:
1. Spanish questions are punctuated with two question marks: an “upsidedown” question mark at the beginning and a “regular” question mark at the
end!! In English, we enclose quotes with quotation marks at the beginning and
end, but not the sentences (question, exclamation) that should have the most
expression!! Have you ever been reading along, only to come to the end of a
sentence and find a question mark?? This never happens in Spanish because of
these wonderful “upside-down”, special character, “¿” and “¡”!!
¿Cómo se llama?
What is your name?
¿Y Ud.?
And you?
¿Qué tal?
What’s up?/How’s everything?
2. Spanish “question words" always have an accent when used in asking a
question!! (¿Cómo? ¿Qué? ¿Dónde? ¿Quién? etc) When these same words
are used in a regular sentence or statement, they do not have an accent!! (como,
que, donde, quien, etc)”
¿Cómo te llamas?
What is your name?
That is how he does it.
Eso es como él lo hace.
I don´t know what her name is?
No sé como ella se llama.
He knows what to do.
Él sabe que hacer.
3. The interrogative word always come first in a question.
¿Cómo te llamas?
What is your name?
Looking at proper greetings and introductory questions. I couldn’t seem to get the
audio to work but the information is a great review!!
#1. http://www.babelnation.com/spanish/courses/01_01_1.html
#2. http://www.babelnation.com/spanish/courses/01_01_2.html
This is a great site that looks at Spanish words used to translate the English word
“What?” This web page focuses on ¿Cómo? and ¿Qué? ... which is wonderful for
helping to learn this lesson, but also introduces the question word ¿Cuál? ... getting us
excited about words we will learn in later lessons!!
#3. http://www.thelearninglight.com/what.htm
Once again, our wonderful “Professor Jason”!! This is a great discussion of
“question words”. His presentation includes not only the interrogative words in this
lesson, ¿cómo? and ¿qué?, but covers many of the other important question words!! The
first few minutes should be familiar to you as he discusses the concepts of this lesson,
and a fabulous introduction of many of the other question words we will be learning!! So
just sit back and enjoy your own private tutor session with “Professor Jason”!!
#4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmnfmuK6kec
Summary of Lesson: The two interrogative/question words, ¿cómo? and ¿qué, are
two of the most commonly used Spanish words in forming sentences that ask for
information. Now there are all kinds of things you should be able to learn about your new
Spanish speaking friend!!
There are quite a few activities with question words but once again, they include lots
of words that we haven’t learned yet!! These activities include practicing question words,
along with introductory greetings!! When finished with each activity, click on the “Back
(←)” button at the top, left corner of your internet browser until you are returned again to
this page in the EHS site.
#5. http://www.babelnation.com/spanish/courses/01_01_exerca.html
#6. http://www.babelnation.com/spanish/courses/01_01_3.html
#7. http://www.babelnation.com/spanish/courses/01_01_4.html