Spanish Reference Grammar - Verbs

Use common question words

These words all have accents when asking a question. Remember to use an inverted question mark at the beginning of the question as well as the end. NB - This does not always mean the first question mark comes at the beginning of the sentence.

For example:

'¿Dónde vives?' - 'Where do you live?'

but

'Trabajas mucho, ¿no?' - 'You work hard, don't you?'

(Read more about punctuation in Spanish)

Use intonation

Or you can use intonation to form a question. This simply means that a normal statement is turned into a question by raising the voice at the end. Note that raising the voice does not mean increasing the volume; it is an upturn in the stress pattern of the sentence which turns the statement into a question.

For example:

'¿Trabajas?' - 'Do you work?'

Use the word 'verdad'

The word 'verdad' (literally 'truth') can be added to a phrase to turn it into a question. It is similar to 'n'est-ce pas?' in French.

For example:

'No eres española, ¿verdad?' - 'You're not Spanish, are you?'

(Note again the use of the upside-down question mark in the middle of the sentence. It shows where the actual question - '¿verdad?' - starts.)

Forming the negative

To form a negative simply put 'no' immediately in front of the verb. So the answer to the question above is simply:

'No, no trabajo.' - 'No, I don’t work.'

There are other negative words in Spanish which usually go after the verb but 'no' must still come before as well.

Examples:

'Yo no voy nunca al supermercado.' - 'I never go to the supermarket.'

'No quiero nada más, gracias.' - 'I don’t want anything else, thanks.'

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