Breakdown of La señora pregunta a qué hora empieza el banquete del evento.
qué
what
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
la señora
the lady / madam (form of address)
empezar
to begin
la hora
the hour; the time (on the clock: what time is it?)
a
at (a time)
preguntar
to ask
el evento
the event
el banquete
the banquet
Questions & Answers about La señora pregunta a qué hora empieza el banquete del evento.
Why does qué have an accent mark here if there are no question marks?
Even though this is a statement, it contains an indirect question. Spanish question words like qué, dónde, and cuándo always keep their accent marks when you are reporting what someone asked.
Why isn't there a connecting word like si (if) after pregunta?
Why does the verb empieza come before the subject el banquete?
In Spanish questions, it is standard to put the verb right after the question word. This word order rule applies to indirect questions too. Saying a qué hora el banquete empieza sounds unnatural to a native speaker.
Could I translate 'what time the event's banquet begins at' and put the a at the very end?
No, in Spanish you can never leave a preposition like a hanging at the end of a sentence. If the question requires a preposition (like asking 'at what time' with a qué hora), it must go right before the question word.
I remember learning the verb empezar, so why is it spelled empieza here?
Empezar is a stem-changing verb. In the present tense, the e in the middle changes to ie for most forms, including the third-person singular used here to match el banquete.
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