Questions words (most popular)

Question words are used to ask about specific qualities, times, places, people, etc. They are different from yes / no questions (Do you live in France?). This chart provides question words, the use and example sentences. Study the question words, understand the uses and then look at the examples. Try to think of a few examples of your own. At the end, take the on the next page testing question words.

Who (quien / quienes)
Use: Asking about people
Examples:
Who do you like?Who studies Russian?

What (que / cual)
Use: Asking about things or activities
Examples:
What does he do at weekends? What is that?

What kind of / type of (que tipo/clase de)
Use: Asking about specific things or characteristics
Examples:
What type of car do you drive? What kind of person is he?

What time (a que hora)
Use: Asking for a specific time
Examples:
What time is it? What time does the show begin?

What... like (como - para describir- como estuvo el clima, como es Maria)
Use: Asking about characteristics
Examples:
What was the weather like? What is Mary like?

When
Use: Asking about general or specific times
Examples:
When do you like going out? When does the bus leave?

Where
Use: Asking about places
Examples:
Where do you live? Where did you go on vacation?

How (como)
Use: Combined with many words to ask questions about specific characteristics, qualities, quantities, etc. For example: How much - cuanto-(price, quantity), How long -para preguntar por duracion de tiempo (length), How often - con que frecuencia- (frequency)
Examples:
How often do you go to the movies? How long was the film? -How much does it cost?

Which (cual/cuales/que)
Use: Asking to specify a thing or person from a number of things or people
Examples:
Which book did you buy? Which boy won the race?

Why -(porque)
Why did you leave me?

Whose - (de quien)
Whose book is this? - de quien es este libro

Nota:
Los question words se utilizan en pregunta y nada va antes del question words en preguntas. Esto se ve en la forma

QW + A - S- V + C (verbos que no son to be ) QW- verb to be - S + C (para verbos to be)

Where do you study?
--QW--A--S---V (C - complement es opcional)

Where is your favorite actor?
--QW--tobe------------S (C - complement es opcional)

Esto quiere decir que si en castellano tenemos la pregunta ¿Para que es esto? en ingles uno no puede poner for primero
For what is this? (ERROR)
What is this for? (CORRECTO)

Primero va el QW y si hay alguna proposición que va antes en el castellano en el ingles lo ponemos al final de la oración
Acaso nunca se han preguntado por que ¿De donde eres? = Where are you from?
Es por las razones expuestas en las que los Question Words son los que van al comienzo. Los Q.W no son necesarios. Sino hay question words la respuesta es un yes/ no answer.
Do you like mangos? Yes, I do - No, I don't
En cambio cuando hay QW's la respuesta es una oración.
Where do you live? I live in Paris.