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¿Qué es un hospital?

¿Qué es un hospital?
What is a hospital?
From Lesson 22:Which one (cuál, cuáles)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of ¿Qué es un hospital?

ser
to be
el hospital
the hospital
qué
what

Questions & Answers about ¿Qué es un hospital?

The word hospital looks exactly like English. How do I pronounce it?
The letter h is completely silent in Spanish. Also, the stress (the part you say the loudest) goes on the very last syllable: os-pi-TAL.
Why do we use es here instead of está?
We use es, which comes from the verb ser, when asking for a definition or explaining what something is. You would use está, from the verb estar, if you were asking for its location, like asking where a hospital is.
Why is there an upside-down question mark (¿) at the beginning of the sentence?
In Spanish, all written questions must start with an inverted question mark (¿) and end with a standard one (?). This tells you right from the first word that you are reading a question, which helps you read it with the right tone of voice.
Could I say ¿Cuál es un hospital? instead?
No, because qué means what and is used to ask for a definition or the meaning of something. Cuál is more like which or which one. You would only use cuál if you were pointing at a group of buildings and asking which one of them is a hospital.

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