Mi abuelo nos enseña qué mesas y sillas son de madera buena y cuáles son baratas.

to be

Breakdown of Mi abuelo nos enseña qué mesas y sillas son de madera buena y cuáles son baratas.

• bueno: good
• mi: my
• y: and

Questions & Answers about Mi abuelo nos enseña qué mesas y sillas son de madera buena y cuáles son baratas.

Why does qué have an accent here if this isn’t a direct question?

The accent on qué shows that it is an interrogative pronoun, even though the whole sentence is not written as a question.

Spanish uses qué, cuál, quién, cuándo, dónde, cómo, por qué with an accent when:

• they introduce a question, and
• also when they introduce an indirect / embedded question, like here.

Compare:

• Direct question:
  ¿Qué mesas y sillas son de madera buena? – Which tables and chairs are made of good wood?
• Indirect question:
  Mi abuelo nos enseña qué mesas y sillas son de madera buena. – My grandfather teaches us which tables and chairs are made of good wood.

If you wrote que (without accent) here, it would suggest a different structure (a relative clause) and would be ungrammatical in this sentence. The accent marks its interrogative value inside the larger sentence.

What’s the difference between qué and cuáles in this sentence?