Notice that the Spanish interrogatives all have accent marks. This is important when writing because these words have different meanings without the accent marks.

For example,

• qué means `what', but que without an accent mark on the e means `that';
• cómo means `how', but como without an accent mark on the o means `as' or 'like'.

This is true for the "tilde" as well: Ñ

Let's look at the question ¿Cuántos años tienes? This means literally `How many years do you have?' Años means `years'.

Look up the word ano in a dictionary. It does not mean years. This is a good example of the importance of the tildes and the accent marks. Accented vowels and the tilded Ñ are different letters than unaccented vowels and the N. This means you change the word if you leave them out.

• Dónde by itself means `where', as in
  • ¿Dónde está tu carro? "Where is your car?"
• De dónde means `from where', as in
  • ¿De dónde eres? "Where are you from?" [From where are you?]
• Adónde means `to where', as in
  • ¿Adónde vas? "Where are you going [to]?"

Cuánto can mean "How Much" but it can also mean How many:

• When cuánto is used as an adjective [how many], it needs to agree with the noun it is modifying. Like all adjectives that end in o, Cuánto has four (4) forms:
• ¿Cuántos libros compras?
• ¿Cuántas mochilas tienes?
• ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que montó a caballo?
• ¿Cuánta cerveza bebes normalmente?


• Cuánto continues to agree even when the noun it is modifying isn't there, but only implied:
• ¿Cuántas amigas van a la playa contigo?


• When cuánto is used as an adverb [how much], its form doesn't change:
• ¿Cuánto cuesta el texto?
• ¿Cuánto estudias?

Qué vs. Cuál

• Qué means "what" when we need to define something:
  • ¿Qué es esto? What is that?
  • ¿Qué haces? What are you doing?


• Cuál means "which" but it also can function as "what". We use Cuál to mean "what" when we are identifying something:

If you asked, ¿Qué es su nombre?, you would be asking what type or kind of name do you have - Irish? English? Cuban?

--meaning, "of all the phone numbers there are, which is yours?"

If you asked, ¿Qué es su número de teléfono?, you would be asking what is a telephone number (it's a series of numbers one enters into a telephone in order to call another person's telephone.

There is a basic rule of thumb that we use Qué with nouns and Cuál with verbs:

However, as grammar references guides will note, sometimes cuál is used as an adjective in Latin American countries in everyday conversations: