Spanish Steps - Buying a ticket - Grammar
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Questions and question words
Questions often start with a question word like
dónde
where
,
cuándo
when
,
qué
what
.
¿
Dónde
está la estación de Chamartín
?
Where's Chamartín Station?
¿
Cuánto
cuesta
?
How much is it?
¿De
qué
andén sale el tren?
From which platform does the train leave?
Or you can ask a question simply by altering the tone of your voice. Unlike in English, you don't need to change the order of the words.
Llega con retraso.
It's delayed.
¿Llega con retraso?
Is it delayed?
Hablas inglés.
You speak English.
¿Hablas inglés?
Do you speak English?
You will often hear
¿no?
or
¿verdad?
at the end of a sentence. They correspond to English question endings, such as
isn't it?
aren't we?
don't they?
Éste es el andén 2,
¿verdad?
This is platform 2, isn't it?
Este tren va para Segovia,
¿no?
This train goes to Segovia, doesn't it?
In writing, questions are always introduced by the upside-down question mark, which is characteristic of Spanish punctuation.
