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¿Qué tal la excursión?

¿Qué tal la excursión?
How was the outing?
From Lesson 139:A day out (el zoo, hacer fotos)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about ¿Qué tal la excursión?

Why is there no verb like "was" in the Spanish sentence?
The phrase ¿Qué tal? is very flexible. You can put it directly in front of a noun to ask "How is..." or "How was..." that thing. You don't actually need to add a verb like fue or estuvo (was).
Without a verb, how do we know it translates to "How was the outing" and not "How is"?
It comes completely from the context of the conversation! If your friend just returned from a trip, ¿Qué tal la excursión? translates to "How was it?" If they are currently on the trip and texting you, it translates to "How is it?"
Why does excursión use the feminine word for "the" (la)?
Almost all Spanish words that end in -sión or -ción are feminine. Because of this, it uses la instead of el.
Could I say "¿Cómo fue la excursión?" instead?
Yes, ¿Cómo fue la excursión? is grammatically correct and means the exact same thing. However, Spaniards use ¿Qué tal... followed directly by a noun all the time in everyday conversation because it is shorter and sounds very natural.

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