Questions & Answers about ¿A qué hora te despiertas?
Why is there a te before despiertas?
Despertarse (to wake up) is a reflexive verb, which means the subject performs the action on themselves. Because you are asking 'you' (tú), you must use the matching reflexive pronoun te. It is almost like asking 'At what time do you wake yourself up?'
If the verb is despertarse, why is it spelled despiertas instead of 'despertas'?
This is because despertarse is a stem-changing verb. In the present tense, the second e changes to ie for most forms, including the tú (you) form. This is very common with daily routine verbs in Spanish.
Why does the question start with A?
In Spanish, when you ask what time a specific event happens, you use the phrase ¿A qué hora...? This literally translates to 'At what hour...?' Just like in English, you need the a ('at') to specify when the action takes place.
Can I leave out the a and just say ¿Qué hora te despiertas?
No, because ¿Qué hora...? is generally only used to ask what the current time is right now (like in ¿Qué hora es?). To ask when an action occurs, you always need the a at the beginning.