Interrogative adverbs are the words Spanish uses to ask information questions: qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde, quién, cuánto, por qué, para qué. Each one corresponds neatly to an English question word — what, how, when, where, who, how much, why, what for — and each one wears a written accent that distinguishes it from a near-identical unaccented twin. That accent is not decoration. It is the difference between a question and a relative clause, between I know when he arrived and I knew, when he arrived,.... Get this rule embedded on day one and you will be ahead of most learners forever.
The headline list
These are the eight interrogative adverbs (plus cuál, which is technically a pronoun but behaves the same way for accent purposes). Every one of them carries a written accent in questions and exclamations.
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ¿qué? | what? | ¿Qué quieres? |
| ¿cómo? | how? | ¿Cómo estás? |
| ¿cuándo? | when? | ¿Cuándo llegas? |
| ¿dónde? | where? | ¿Dónde vives? |
| ¿quién? / ¿quiénes? | who? (sg. / pl.) | ¿Quién es? |
| ¿cuánto? / ¿cuánta? / ¿cuántos? / ¿cuántas? | how much / how many? | ¿Cuántos años tienes? |
| ¿por qué? | why? (cause) | ¿Por qué lloras? |
| ¿para qué? | what for? (purpose) | ¿Para qué sirve esto? |
| ¿cuál? / ¿cuáles? | which one(s)? / what? | ¿Cuál prefieres? |
¿Cómo te llamas? — Me llamo Lucía, encantada.
What's your name? — My name is Lucía, pleased to meet you. (Spanish 'how do you call yourself' for English 'what's your name'.)
¿Dónde están las llaves? No las encuentro.
Where are the keys? I can't find them.
¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? Te quiero hacer un regalo.
When is your birthday? I want to get you a present.
The accent rule — the single most important point on this page
Spanish has two versions of almost every interrogative word: a stressed one (with a written accent) for questions and exclamations, and an unstressed one (no accent) for relative clauses and conjunctions. They are spelled the same way without the accent. The accent is the only visual mark of the difference — and it changes the part of speech entirely.
| Stressed (interrogative / exclamative) | Unstressed (relative / conjunction) |
|---|---|
| ¿qué? / ¡qué! — what? / what a...! | que — that / which / who |
| ¿cómo? — how? | como — as, like, since |
| ¿cuándo? — when? | cuando — when (relative) |
| ¿dónde? — where? | donde — where (relative) |
| ¿quién? — who? | quien — who (relative) |
| ¿cuánto? — how much? | cuanto — as much as (rare on its own) |
The pairs sound the same out loud — the difference is that the interrogative version carries stress in speech and a written accent in writing.
¿Cuándo vienes? — Cuando termine el trabajo.
When are you coming? — When I finish work. — cuándo with accent (question), cuando without (subordinator).
¿Dónde está? — En el bar donde quedamos siempre.
Where is it? — In the bar where we always meet. — dónde (question), donde (relative).
¿Cómo lo haces? — Como tú me enseñaste.
How do you do it? — The way you taught me. — cómo (question), como (relative/conjunction).
Indirect questions also bear the accent
Here is the rule that catches almost every English-speaking learner: the accent is required not just in direct questions, but in indirect questions as well. An indirect question is one embedded inside a larger sentence: I don't know when he's arriving, Tell me where you live, He asked us how it happened. There are no question marks visible, but the interrogative word still has its stress — and therefore its written accent.
No sé cuándo viene, no me lo ha dicho.
I don't know when he's coming — he hasn't told me. — Indirect question; cuándo still wears its accent.
Dime dónde has dejado el móvil.
Tell me where you've left your phone. — dónde with accent because it's still an interrogative.
Me preguntó cómo había llegado tan rápido al hospital.
He asked me how I'd gotten to the hospital so fast.
The test is semantic: does the word ask (or pose) a question, even silently? If yes, accent. If it just connects clauses without questioning anything, no accent. Compare:
Llámame cuando llegues a casa.
Call me when you get home. — cuando without accent: pure subordinator; no question is being posed.
Llámame y dime cuándo llegas a casa.
Call me and tell me when you're getting home. — cuándo with accent: an indirect question.
Exclamations carry the accent too
When the same words appear in exclamations (how nice!, what a day!, how much it costs!), they still bear the written accent. The mark signals stress, and exclamatives are stressed in the same way questions are.
¡Qué calor hace hoy! No se aguanta.
How hot it is today! You can hardly stand it.
¡Cómo ha cambiado el barrio en diez años!
How the neighbourhood has changed in ten years!
¡Cuánto te he echado de menos!
How much I've missed you!
The inverted opening marks ¡ and ¿ are mandatory in writing — see the punctuation page. Forgetting them is the second-most-common Spanish punctuation slip after the missing tilde.
Position: clause-initial, by default
Interrogative adverbs sit at the start of their clause, immediately after the opening ¿ (or ¡ for exclamations). Anything that comes before them in word order is either a preposition that the question word is part of (¿de dónde eres?, ¿con quién hablas?) or a fronted topic with a comma (Mi madre, ¿dónde está?).
¿De dónde eres? — Soy de Sevilla, ¿y tú?
Where are you from? — I'm from Seville, and you? — Preposition de before dónde.
¿Con quién vas al concierto? — Con mis primos.
Who are you going to the concert with? — With my cousins. — Spanish doesn't strand prepositions; con + quién together at the front.
¿Para qué quieres tantas servilletas?
What do you want so many napkins for?
This is a major divergence from English. English freely strands prepositions: Who are you talking to?, Where are you from?, What are you looking at?. Spanish never does. The preposition travels with the question word to the front of the clause: ¿Con quién hablas?, ¿De dónde eres?, ¿A qué miras?. Splitting them up — ¿quién hablas con? — is ungrammatical.
Qué vs cuál — a famous trap
Qué and cuál both translate as what or which, but the split is not where English speakers expect. The everyday rule:
- Qué + noun: which noun? (asking among multiple) or what (kind of) noun? (asking for a description).
- Cuál (de los/las...) + verb: which one(s) out of a set?
- Cuál alone before ser: where English uses what is...?, Spanish uses cuál es...? if you are asking for a specific identifying piece of information (your name, your number, your address).
¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono?
What's your phone number? — Identifying information; Spanish uses cuál, not qué.
¿Qué es un autónomo?
What is a 'self-employed person'? — Asking for a definition; qué, not cuál.
¿Qué libro estás leyendo? — Cien años de soledad.
Which book are you reading? — One Hundred Years of Solitude. — qué + noun.
De estos dos vinos, ¿cuál prefieres? — El tinto, sin duda.
Of these two wines, which do you prefer? — The red, no doubt. — cuál for choosing within a set.
The full distinction has its own page — see qué vs cuál. For now, internalise: ¿cuál es tu nombre?, ¿cuál es tu dirección?, ¿cuál es el problema? are the three you will use every week.
Por qué vs porque vs porqué vs por que
This quartet trips up native speakers, never mind learners. The accent and spacing matter.
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ¿por qué? | question word: why? | ¿Por qué llegas tarde? |
| porque | conjunction: because | Llego tarde porque hay tráfico. |
| el porqué | noun: the reason | No entiendo el porqué de su decisión. |
| por que | rare: 'for which' (formal) | la razón por que (la) lucharon |
The two you must internalise immediately are ¿por qué? (question, two words, accent on qué) and porque (conjunction, one word, no accent). They appear constantly and at the same A1 level — get them sorted now.
¿Por qué no me llamaste anoche? Estaba preocupada.
Why didn't you call me last night? I was worried.
No te llamé porque me quedé sin batería.
I didn't call you because my phone ran out of battery.
Cuánto agrees like an adjective when it modifies a noun
Most interrogative words are invariable. Cuánto is the exception: when it modifies a noun, it agrees in gender and number with that noun, just like an adjective.
| Form | Use |
|---|---|
| ¿cuánto? | masculine singular: ¿cuánto dinero?, or modifying a verb: ¿cuánto cuesta? |
| ¿cuánta? | feminine singular: ¿cuánta agua? |
| ¿cuántos? | masculine plural: ¿cuántos libros? |
| ¿cuántas? | feminine plural: ¿cuántas veces? |
¿Cuántas veces te lo tengo que decir?
How many times do I have to tell you?
¿Cuánta gente había en la fiesta?
How many people were at the party? — gente is feminine singular in Spanish, hence cuánta.
¿Cuánto cuesta esta camisa?
How much does this shirt cost? — modifying the verb cuesta, the masculine singular form is the default.
Same for quién: it has a plural quiénes, used when you expect multiple people in the answer.
¿Quiénes son esos chicos del fondo?
Who are those guys at the back? — Plural quiénes because more than one.
Common Mistakes
❌ ¿Cuando llegas?
Missing accent: as written, this is a relative clause, not a question.
✅ ¿Cuándo llegas?
When are you arriving?
❌ No sé donde vive.
Indirect questions also need the accent — donde without accent would be a pure relative.
✅ No sé dónde vive.
I don't know where he lives.
❌ ¿Quién vas con?
Spanish doesn't strand prepositions — con must travel with quién to the front.
✅ ¿Con quién vas?
Who are you going with?
❌ ¿Qué es tu nombre?
For identifying information (name, address, phone), Spanish uses cuál, not qué.
✅ ¿Cuál es tu nombre? / ¿Cómo te llamas?
What's your name?
❌ Llegué tarde por qué había tráfico.
Mixing up the question word ¿por qué? with the conjunction porque.
✅ Llegué tarde porque había tráfico.
I arrived late because there was traffic.
❌ Cuanta gente hay aquí.
If this is a question (or indirect question), it needs the accent: cuánta.
✅ ¡Cuánta gente hay aquí!
What a lot of people there are here! (exclamation)
❌ ¿Que quieres?
Without the accent, this is the relative que ('that/which'), not the question qué.
✅ ¿Qué quieres?
What do you want?
Key takeaways
- Every interrogative carries a written accent in questions, exclamations, and indirect questions: qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde, quién, cuánto, por qué, para qué, cuál.
- The accent is the only mark that separates the question word from its unaccented relative/conjunction twin. Skip it and you change the part of speech.
- Indirect questions still bear the accent: no sé cuándo viene, dime dónde estás, me preguntó cómo lo hice.
- Exclamations also bear the accent: ¡qué calor!, ¡cuánto te quiero!.
- The opening ¿ and ¡ are mandatory in writing.
- Spanish never strands prepositions — they ride to the front with the question word: ¿de dónde?, ¿con quién?, ¿para qué?.
- Cuál es tu nombre / tu dirección / tu número — Spanish uses cuál, not qué, for identifying information.
- Cuánto agrees in gender and number when it modifies a noun: ¿cuántos libros?, ¿cuántas chicas?, ¿cuánta agua?. So does quién → quiénes.
- Distinguish ¿por qué? (question, two words, accent) from porque (conjunction, one word, no accent) and el porqué (noun, the reason).
Now practice Spanish
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Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
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