Learn Spanish (Spain): ¿Qué haces cuando estás triste?

¿Qué haces cuando estás triste?

What do you do when you are sad?

Breakdown of ¿Qué haces cuando estás triste?

qué

what

estar

to be (location/state)

Questions & Answers about ¿Qué haces cuando estás triste?

Why do we use estás instead of eres for being sad?

We use estar (the verb for temporary states and locations) for feelings and emotions. Since sadness is a mood rather than a permanent personality trait, you must use estás. If you used eres, it would sound like you are calling the person a fundamentally gloomy person.

Why does the English translation have the word 'do' twice but Spanish only uses haces once?

English requires a helper verb to form questions, which is why we ask 'What do you do?'. Spanish does not use helper verbs this way. The single verb haces carries all the meaning and directly translates to 'do you do' or 'are you doing'.

Would triste change if I am asking a woman this question?

No, triste stays exactly the same. While many Spanish adjectives end in -o or -a depending on gender, adjectives that end in -e are gender-neutral. It would only change if you were asking multiple people, in which case it becomes plural (tristes).

Why does Qué have an accent mark here?

Question words in Spanish always carry an accent mark to distinguish them from the same words used in regular statements. Because this is a direct question, it must be Qué (what) instead of que (that).