Word order for questions in spanish

Table of Contents

1. Overview of Word Order in Spanish
2. Basic Word Order with Subject, Verb, and Object
3. Word Order in Negative Sentences
4. Word Order with Prepositional Phrases
5. Word Order with Modifiers
6. Changing a Sentence into a Yes-or-No Question
7. Translation Exercises
8. How to Master Spanish with SpanishPod101.com

1. Overview of Word Order in Spanish

Basic Spanish language word order refers to the usual order in which words are found in a sentence. Even though the sentences that we use day-to-day may have other elements in them, to learn this basic order, there are three basic elements that we use as a reference. These three elements are the subject, verb, and object.

Despite Spanish being more flexible than English in this sense, our basic word order is the same: 

subject + verb + object (SVO)

Yo + me comí + la tarta

I + ate + the cake

Sometimes, we might want to emphasize one element or another in a sentence. This leads us to moving these around the sentence, but they will keep the same (or very similar) meaning. In English, because the ability to move words in a sentence is quite limited, emphasizing an element is accomplished by intonation. 

Let’s look at two sentences. The first one has basic word order, and the other one has a different order. In the second sentence, the emphasized word is marked in bold:

Example: Yo me comí la tarta. 

Translation: “I ate the cake.”

Example: Me la comí yo, la tarta.

Translation: “I ate the cake.”

There’s a way of modifying the English sentence to emphasize this element even more: “It is I that ate the cake.” However, this wouldn’t be an accurate translation of our example in Spanish, because in English, we’re not just moving an element around: we’re changing the whole structure. 

Did you notice that we actually added an extra word in our second Spanish sentence? If you did, we just want to say: Nice job! The word that we added was a pronoun, and don’t worry, we’ll explain it a little bit later.

We could still modify our sample sentence a bit more:

Example: La tarta me la comí yo.

Translation: “The cake, I ate.”

In this case, we can translate this new structure pretty much literally, but in English, we feel like this sounds quite unnatural. In Spanish, this is completely normal.

2. Basic Word Order with Subject, Verb, and Object

Now, let’s go more into detail about the most basic Spanish word order rules.

1 – Subject

Subject is the person or thing performing the action of the verb. It’s usually a noun phrase, such as a noun or a pronoun: Juan come espaguetis. (“Juan eats spaghetti.”) / Él come espaguetis. (“He eats spaghetti.”). 

Sometimes, the subject might be a verb: Cantar es divertido. (“Singing is fun.”). However, as we’ve explained in previous articles, in Spanish, a subject isn’t always necessary and we often drop pronouns when we already know who the subject is: Como espaguetis. (“I eat spaghetti.”). 

As we saw in our previous article about verb conjugation in Spanish, the verb como is conjugated, and considering the verb is conjugated in the first person singular, we know it means “I eat,” so there’s no possible confusion.

2 – Verb

The second element in Spanish word order is verbs. You know what verbs are, don’t you? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a verb is “a word or phrase that describes an action, condition, or experience.” 

To give you a few examples: cantar (“to sing”), comer (“to eat”), and hablar (“to talk”) are all verbs. Without them, language wouldn’t make much sense.

3 – Object

The third and last element in basic word order is something we call an object. It isn’t an indispensable element in a sentence, as some verbs don’t require objects, but it’s undoubtedly common and helps us define sentence structure. 

Cambridge defines an object as “a noun or noun phrase that is affected by the action of a verb or that follows a preposition.” In the sentence Juan come espaguetis. (“Juan eats spaghetti.”), spaghetti is the thing that is being eaten by Juan.

3. Word Order in Negative Sentences 

In some languages, negative sentences can completely change an affirmative sentence. Lucky for you, in this sense, Spanish happens to be quite simple. So, what is the Spanish word order for these negative sentences?

To form a regular negative sentence, all we need to do is add the word no, which in this context is equivalent to “not,” to an affirmative sentence. No is always found before the verb. To illustrate this, let’s use the same example we did before: Juan no come espaguetis. (“Juan does not eat spaghetti.”).

As you know, there are other ways of making a negative sentence. One example would be to add nunca (“never”): Juan nunca come espaguetis. (“Juan never eats spaghetti.”). As you can see, it follows exactly the same structure as the previous example. Simple, right? 

Well, there are many other negative words: nada (“nothing”), nadie (“nobody”), ninguno (“none”)… When we use these words, the structure is a bit different, because they can be used in different ways. They can act as subjects or as objects. 

For example: Nadie ha comido espaguetis. (“Nobody has eaten spaghetti.”). Here we find the word nadie before the verb, just as we saw in the previous negative sentences. However, that makes sense, because it acts as a subject. 

Since we’re mentioning this, we should explain that sometimes these words might be found after the verb, even if they’re a subject. Here are a few examples:

• No hay nadie. → “There isn’t anyone.”
• No hay nada. → “There isn’t anything.”
• No queda ninguno. → “There is none left.”

The negative word in bold in each of these examples is the subject of the sentence, even though it might not be as obvious as in the other examples we’ve seen. We could say that the word in bold is “the thing that isn’t.” 

As you might have noticed, the adverb no does appear at the beginning of the sentence, something that happens similarly in the English translation. As you’ll find out in our lesson “How to Be Negative?” in Spanish, it’s quite common to have more than one negative word in one sentence.

4. Word Order with Prepositional Phrases

Another element that needs to be taken into account when talking about word order is prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase is a type of phrase that always begins with a preposition, such as en (“in,” “on,” “at”) or con (“with”). If you would like to find out more about prepositions, we have an article just for you! Check out our article about Spanish prepositions.

Prepositional phrases are usually found at the end of a sentence, but some of them can be placed at the beginning if you want to emphasize said phrase. Let’s look at some examples of Spanish word order that show this: 

Estudio español en casa. → “I study Spanish at home.”

But what if someone asked us: 

¿Dónde estudias español? → “Where do you study Spanish?”

In this case, a possible answer we could give them would be:

En casa, estudio español. → “At home, I learn Spanish.”

There are many other prepositional phrases we could add to the same sentence, even together, such as: 

Estudio español en casa con SpanishPod101.com. → “I study Spanish at home with SpanishPod101.com.”

5. Word Order with Modifiers

We’ve already seen a type of modifier, which were the ones that turned affirmative sentences into negative sentences. However, there are many more elements in sentences that we call modifiers. These include words such as articles, adjectives, and pronouns.

Determiners are easy, because they always go in front of a noun, just like in English. These are, among others, articles, numerals, and possessives. Let’s look at examples for these types of modifiers:

Articles: El hombre come espaguetis. → “The man eats spaghetti.”

Numerals: Dos hombres comen espaguetis. → “Two men eat spaghetti.”

Possessives: Mi padre come espaguetis. → “My father eats spaghetti.”

However, in Spanish word order, adjectives normally go after the noun, but there are exceptions. For example, in literature, especially poetry, it’s common to write the adjective before the noun. Check out our article on adjectives for more information!

El coche blanco es de mi padre. → “The white car is my dad’s.”

La hermosa princesa abrió los ojos. → “The beautiful princess opened her eyes.”

Pronouns can go either before or after the verb, depending on the kind of pronoun they are, or sometimes depending on what you feel like saying. As we learned in our previous article about pronouns, there are different kinds of pronouns in Spanish. Even though we also talked about the order they follow in that article, we’ll look at them again, one by one:

1 – Personal Pronouns

If you read the article we just mentioned, you might remember that there are many kinds of personal pronouns. 

a) Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns, which are the ones we use for the subject of a sentence, are always found before the verb. This is because, as we saw, in Spanish, the subject is always the first element in a sentence. 

Ellos quieren una casa nueva. → “They want a new house.”

b) Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns and Reflexive Pronouns

You probably remember that basic word order in Spanish is subject + verb + object, don’t you? Well, when a direct or indirect object is substituted by a pronoun, the pronoun is actually found before the verb. We’ll illustrate this with a few examples:

Direct object: 

Quieren una casa nueva. → La quieren.

“They want a new house.” → “They want it.”

Both direct and indirect objects: 

Traigo un regalo para mi madre. → Le traigo un regalo. → Se lo traigo.

“I bring a present for my mom.” → “I bring her a present.” → “I bring it to her.”

Reflexive pronouns work in a very similar way and they’re always found before the verb:

Mis padres se van de vacaciones. → “My parents are going on vacation.”  

c) Prepositional Pronouns

Prepositional pronouns follow the same rules that prepositional phrases do, so they can be in different locations inside a sentence depending on what you would like to emphasize.

Sin ti todo es diferente. → “Without you, everything is different.”

Todo es diferente sin ti. → “Everything is different without you.”

d) Possessive Pronouns

A possessive pronoun can be a subject or an object, so its order will depend on the function it does in the sentence:

El nuestro es ese. → “Ours is that one.”

La casa es nuestra. → “The house is ours.” 

2 – Demonstrative Pronouns

Just like what happened with possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns can be in different places in the same sentence, depending on their function.

Este es mi hermano. → “This is my brother.”

Nunca he estado ahí. → “I have never been there.”

3 – Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that help us ask questions, and they’re always the first word in a question:

¿Qué quieres? → “What do you want?”

4 – Indefinite Pronouns

Once again, indefinite pronouns don’t have a specific position in a sentence, because that depends on their function.

Todos quieren dinero. → “Everyone wants money.”

Puedes preguntárselo a cualquiera. → “You can ask anyone.”

5 – Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are never found in simple sentences. Rather, we find them in complex sentences. These pronouns always start the second part of the sentence, so they’ll always be in the middle. This might sound odd if you’re not sure what a relative pronoun is, but you’ll understand once you look at an example:

Esta es mi prima que vive en la ciudad. → “This is my cousin who lives in the city.”

6. Changing a Sentence into a Yes-or-No Question

In many languages, to transform a normal sentence into a yes-or-no question you must change it a fair bit, or change the order. In Spanish, this is way simpler. So, what is the Spanish word order in questions? Look at these examples:

Estudias español todos los días. → “You study Spanish every day.” 

¿Estudias español todos los días? → “Do you study Spanish every day?” 

As you probably noticed, it’s exactly the same structure. This doesn’t only happen with specific structures: it happens every time you turn a sentence, either affirmative or negative, into a yes-or-no question. 

We’re sure you enjoyed learning this, but you probably know that there are other kinds of questions. If you feel a bit lost when it comes to this topic, you might enjoy our lesson on 15 Questions You Should Know. 

7. Translation Exercises

We thought it would be useful to you to see how we transform a simple sentence into more complex sentences, and translate them to English. Below, you can see exactly what changes we make.

1. Bebiste agua. → “You drank water.”

2. Bebiste agua hace cinco minutos. → “You drank water five minutes ago.”

In this second sentence, the only thing we added was the time the action happened, hace cinco minutos, which means “five minutes ago.”

3. Bebiste dos botellas de agua hace cinco minutos. → “You drank two bottles of water five minutes ago.” 

In this third sentence, we made a bigger change. This time, what we’re drinking isn’t just water, but something slightly more specific: two bottles of water. The new object is dos botellas de agua instead of just agua.

4. ¿Bebiste dos botellas de agua hace cinco minutos? → “Did you drink two bottles of water five minutes ago?”

To end these examples, we thought it would be a good idea to show you once again how to turn an affirmative sentence into a question, to convince you that we don’t have to make any changes to it, just in case you didn’t believe us before!

8. How to Master Spanish with SpanishPod101.com

As we mentioned previously, Spanish word order is more flexible than English word order, so in some cases, if you don’t use our basic order, it might just seem as if you’re trying to emphasize some word or phrase in particular. The way we see it, it means you would have to try pretty hard to get it wrong! When learning a foreign language, this is exactly the kind of motivation you need.

For more information on Spanish word order, SpanishPod101.com has another short lesson on this as well! If you want to get a better understanding of Spanish grammar in general, also check out our relevant page.

No matter what your level is, give us a try and learn Spanish! From beginner to advanced, here you’ll find everything you need.

Before you go, let us know in the comments if there’s anything that’s still not clear about Spanish word order. We’ll do our best to help you out!

As in English, they often begin with interrogative pronoun

Updated on August 11, 2019

English and Spanish questions have two key characteristics in common: They often begin with a word to indicate that what follows is a question, and they usually use a word order that is different than that used in direct statements.

But the first thing you may notice about written Spanish questions is a punctuation difference—they always begin with an inverted question mark (¿). With the exception of Galician, a minority language of Spain and Portugal, Spanish is unique in using that symbol.

Using Interrogative Pronouns

The question-indicating words, known as interrogatives, all have their equivalents in English:

• qué: what
• por qué: why
• cuándo: when
• dónde: where
• cómo: how
• cuál: which
• quién: who
• cuánto, cuánta: how much
• cuántos, cuántas: how many

(Although the English equivalents are the most common ones used to translate these words, other translations are sometimes possible.)

Several of these interrogatives can be preceded by prepositions: a quién (to whom), de quién (of whom), de dónde (from where), de qué (of what), etc.

Note that all these words have accents; generally, when the same words are used in statements, they do not have accents. There is no difference in pronunciation.

Word Order in Questions

Generally, a verb follows the interrogative. Provided one’s vocabulary is sufficient, most simple questions using interrogatives can readily be understood by English speakers:

• ¿Qué es eso? (What is that?)
• ¿Por qué fue a la ciudad? (Why did he go to the city?)
• ¿Qué es la capital del Perú? (What is the capital of Peru?)
• ¿Dónde está mi coche? (Where is my car?)
• ¿Cómo está usted? (How are you?)
• ¿Cuándo sale el tren? (When does the train leave?)
• ¿Cuántos segundos hay en una hora? (How many seconds are there in an hour?)

When the verb needs a subject other than the interrogative, the subject follows the verb:

• ¿Por qué fue él a la ciudad? (Why did he go to the city?)
• ¿Cuántos dólares tiene el muchacho? (How many dollars does the boy have?)

As in English, questions can be formed in Spanish without the interrogatives, although Spanish is more flexible in its word order. In Spanish, the general form is for the noun to follow the verb. The noun can either appear immediately after the verb or appear later in the sentence. In the following examples, either Spanish question is a grammatically valid way of expressing the English:

• ¿Va Pedro al mercado? ¿Va al mercado Pedro? (Is Pedro going to the market?)
• ¿Tiene que ir Roberto al banco? ¿Tiene que ir al banco Roberto? (Does Roberto have to go to the bank?)
• ¿Sale María mañana? ¿Sale mañana María? (Is María leaving tomorrow?)

As you can see, Spanish doesn’t require auxiliary verbs the way that English does to form questions. The same verb forms as are used in questions are used in statements.

Also, as in English, a statement can be made into a question simply by a change in intonation (the voice tone) or, in writing, by adding question marks, although it isn’t particularly common.

• Él es doctor. (He’s a doctor.)
• ¿Él es doctor? (He’s a doctor?)

Punctuating Questions

Finally, note that when only part of a sentence is a question, in Spanish the question marks are placed around only the portion that’s a question:

• Estoy feliz, ¿y tú? (I’m happy, are you?)
• Si salgo, ¿salen ellos también? (If I leave, are they leaving too?)

Порядок слов

В испанском языке для официальной переписки существует порядок слов, которого стоит придерживаться. Необходимо сказуемое поставить на первое место, за ним подлежащее, а затем — всё остальное:

¿Es Usted de Moscú? — Вы из Москвы?

Сказуемое — это действие, чаще всего выражено глаголом. Подлежащее, это то, что данное действие выполняет. Подчеркнём подлежащее и сказуемое для наглядности и сравним вопросительное с обычным утвердительным предложением:

Usted es de Moscú — Вы из Москвы

¿Es Usted de Moscú? — Вы из Москвы?

Дословно было бы так:

¿
EsЕсть
UstedВы
deиз
MoscúМосквы
?

И ещё пара примеров:

¿
EsЕсть
tuтвоя
amigaподруга
inteligenteумная
?

¿
EstáЕсть
la
comidaеда
ricaвкусная
?

Если в вопросе присутствует отрицание, то оно ставится в самом начале, например:

¿
NoНе
esесть
tuтвоя
amigaподруга
inteligenteумная
?

¿
NoНе
estáесть
la
comidaеда
ricaвкусная
?

Специальные вопросы

На все предыдущие вопросы можно было ответить «да» или «нет», но существуют специальные вопросы, когда вас спрашивают о предмете, лице, времени, месте, причине, образе действия.

Для того чтобы задать специальный вопрос, необходимо на первое место поставить вопросительное местоимение:

Вопросительные слова в испанском

В испанском существуют базовые вопросительные слова и производные. Начнем с базовых и разделим их на несколько категорий. Вопросительные местоимения, для предметов и лиц (кто, что, который), вопросительные определения для вопросов о качестве и количестве (какой, сколько), вопросительные наречия для вопросов о месте, времени и причине(где, куда, когда, почему, как).

Qué — что, какой. Не изменяется ни по роду ни по числу.

¿Qué es eso? — Что это?

¿Qué haces? — Что ты делаешь?

¿Qué móvil tiene tu hermana? — Какой мобильник у твоей сестры?

Cuál — какой, который. Изменяется по числу. Используется в значении «который из»: есть определенный набор сущностей, об одной из которых мы спрашиваем. Этот набор может подразумеваться или является общеизвестным, например, мы знаем какие города есть, нам нужно название столицы:

¿Cuál es la capital de España? — Какая столица Испании?

Или ситуация: вам протягивают два предмета, просят выбрать один из них, свой:

¿Cuál es el tuyo? — Который из них твой?

Если просят выбрать несколько предметов, то говорят cuáles:

¿Cuáles son los tuyos? — Какие (из этих) твои?

В отличие от qué, cuál мы используем, когда хотим узнать только наименование, а не значение:

¿Cuál es el plato típico en España? — Какое традиционное блюдо в Испании?

La paella — Паэлья.

¿Qué es el plato típico en España? — Что такое традиционное блюдо в Испании?

На последний вопрос могут ответить, что означает для испанцев традиционная кухня и затем провести небольшой исторический экскурс, или же рассказывающий может выссказать своё личное мнение по данному вопросу.

Quién — кто. Изменяется по числу.

¿Quién eres? — Кто ты?

Soy Iván — Я Иван.

¿Quiénes son esos hombres? — Кто эти мужчины?

Son mis amigos — Мои друзья.

¿Quiénes son esas chicas? — Кто эти девушки?

No las conozco — Я их не знаю.

Cómo — какой, как. Не изменяется.

Cómo estás — Как ты?

Cómo es tu trabajo — Какая у тебя работа?

Сómo es él — Какой он?

Cuándo — когда. Не изменяется.

¿Cuándo viajas a España? — Когда поедешь в Испанию?

¿Cuándo se te empezó a doler el estómago? — Когда у тебя начал болеть живот?

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? — Когда у тебя день рожденье?

Cuánto — сколько. Изменяется по числу и по роду.

¿Cuánto cuesta ese coche? — Сколько стоит эта машина?

¿Cuántos somos en el grupo? — Сколько нас в группе?

¿Cuántas veces vas a repetir la pregunta? — Сколько раз будешь повторять вопрос?

Dónde — где. Не изменяется.

¿Dónde están las llaves? — Где ключи?

¿Dónde está La Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia? — Где Собор Святого Креста и Святой Евлалии

¿Dónde estamos ahora? — Где мы сейчас находимся?

Spanish syntax is incredibly flexible. While there are some rules to follow when constructing basic Spanish sentences, you can usually play around with the placement of words and get the exact same message across.

Let’s take a look at an example that demonstrates the flexibility of Spanish syntax and word order.

Yes, you read that right! Even though the word order is different, these sentences communicate the same basic meaning, although there may be some subtle differences in emphasis.

Word Order in Affirmative Statements

Let’s take a look at the basic word order rules for affirmative statements!

1. A Complete Sentence Requires a Subject and a Verb

A complete sentence in Spanish must have a subject and a verb.
The subject is the part of a sentence that contains the person or thing performing the action, while the verb expresses the action or state of being of the subject. The verb is always conjugated based on the subject pronoun (yo, tú, etc.) of the sentence.

2. Subject Pronouns are Optional

While subject pronouns can be used to replace a person’s name, many native speakers of Spanish rarely use them at all unless it’s for emphasis or in cases where it is not clear who the subject is. This is because Spanish verb endings tell you who the subject is.

Check out these examples!

3. The Subject Typically Goes Before the Verb

The typical word order of an affirmative statement in Spanish is SVO: subject, verb, object.

For example:

However, there are many reasons to invert the subject-verb order.
You can invert the subject and the verb:

• to ask a question (see last section)
• for emphasis or dramatic purpose
• to keep an adverb close to the verb it modifies
• when using verbs like gustar
• to indicate who’s speaking

Let’s take a look at some examples that demonstrate a subject-verb inversion!

4. Adjectives Typically Go After Nouns

Unlike in English, adjectives usually come after the nouns they describe in Spanish.

For example:

As always, there are some exceptions. Place the adjective before the noun when using possessive, demonstrative, and limiting adjectives (adjectives that define a number or amount of a noun), as well as descriptive adjectives that emphasize an essential quality of a noun.

For example:

Some adjectives change meaning according to position.
When placed after the noun, the adjective has a fairly objective, descriptive meaning. When placed before the noun, the adjective has a more subjective meaning.

Check out these examples!

5. Many Adverbs Can Go Anywhere

Adverbs typically go after the verb or before the adjective they modify, but they can also go at the beginning or end of the sentence. Here are a few guidelines to follow:

• An adverb usually comes after the verb it modifies.

• An adverb always comes before the adjective or adverb it modifies.

• Adverbs of time can be placed in various positions in a sentence. They can go at the beginning of the sentence, after the verb, or at the end of the sentence.

Word Order in Negative Statements

Negation in Spanish is really simple—just add nobefore the verb! If there is a direct or indirect object pronoun in front of the verb, place the no in front of the pronoun. If you are including the subject pronoun, the no is placed between the subject pronoun and the verb.

Word Order in Questions

Yes / No Questions

Intonation is the easiest way to ask a question that can be answered with sí(yes) or no(no). All you need to do is raise your voice at the end of the statement when you want to ask a question. To put the question in writing, just frame what you want to ask with question marks (¿?).

For example:

Another way to ask a sí or no question is with inversion. To convert a statement to a question using inversion, simply reverse the subject-verb order.

Let’s turn the following statements into questions!

WH- Questions

When asking information questions (questions that require an answer beyond sí or no), you’ll need to begin your question with a question word. Unless the question word functions as a subject, subject-verb inversion is obligatory.

For example:

Both options are correct. And others.

In Spanish, since the words are properly modified (the verb is conjugated, and the names and adjectives are coordinated), there is some elasticity to order them.

This is usually done for stylistic purposes, but can be done also for meaning reasons.

¿Por qué es vendedora tu madre?

This one stresses the fact that she is a seller. Would roughly be «She is a seller. Why?»

¿Por qué es tu madre vendedora?

This one stresses the fact that the asker talks about your mother. Would roughly be «Let’s talk about your mother. Why is she a seller?»

¿Por qué tu madre es vendedora?

This one follows the standard order of words in Spanish: subject «tu madre», verb «es», predicate «vendedora»; so it does not stress anything in particular. This one is the standard way of asking this question in most Spanish-speaking places. But note that there are regional differences.