Learn about interrogative words and expressions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anna: Hola soy Anna. |
| Eric: Eric here! Are You Going To This Spanish Party? |
| Anna: In this lesson you'll learn how to use interrogative words and expressions. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place at a university. |
| Anna: And it’s between Paula and Daniel, two university students who are friends and are talking about a party. |
| Eric: Since they’re young and friends, they use informal language. |
| Anna:Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paula: ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? |
| Daniel: ¿Fiesta? ¿Qué fiesta? |
| Paula: La del cumpleaños de Santiago. |
| Daniel: No lo sé. ¿Quién va? |
| Paula: Poca gente. Creo que es una fiesta pequeña. |
| Eric: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Paula: ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? |
| Daniel: ¿Fiesta? ¿Qué fiesta? |
| Paula: La del cumpleaños de Santiago. |
| Daniel: No lo sé. ¿Quién va? |
| Paula: Poca gente. Creo que es una fiesta pequeña. |
| Eric: Let's now listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Paula: ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? |
| Paula: When is the party? |
| Daniel: ¿Fiesta? ¿Qué fiesta? |
| Daniel: Party? What party? |
| Paula: La del cumpleaños de Santiago. |
| Paula: Santiago's birthday party. |
| Daniel: No lo sé. ¿Quién va? |
| Daniel: I don't know. Who's going? |
| Paula: Poca gente. Creo que es una fiesta pequeña. |
| Paula: Only a few people. I think that it's a small party. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anna: In Spain, there are ten major national holidays. The first one of the year is Año Nuevo. |
| Eric: "New Year." |
| Anna: 6 de enero, Reyes. |
| Eric: Which is the sixth of January, "The Epiphany." |
| Anna: entre el 29 de marzo y el 6 de abril, Pascua. |
| Eric: Which means "Easter," and is around March 29th and April 6th. |
| Anna: 1 de mayo, Día del Trabajo. |
| Eric: "Worker's Day" or "Labor Day," the first of May. |
| Anna: 15 de agosto, Asunción de la Virgen. |
| Eric: That would be The Assumption of Mary, or when Mary died and ascended into heaven. It's the 15th of August. |
| Anna: 12 de octubre, Día de la Hispanidad. |
| Eric: Spain’s “National Holiday," October 12th. |
| Anna: 1 de noviembre, Día de Todos los Santos. |
| Eric: "All Saints Day," November 1st. |
| Anna: 6 de diciembre, Día de la Constitución Española. |
| Eric: "Spanish Constitution Day," 6th of December. |
| Anna: 8 de diciembre, Inmaculada Concepción. |
| Eric: "Immaculate Conception," 8th of December. |
| Anna: And 25 de diciembre, Navidad. |
| Eric: Which is "Christmas!" Obviously, on the 25th of December. Okay, now on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Anna: qué |
| Eric: what |
| Anna: qué [slowly] |
| Anna: qué |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: cuándo |
| Eric: when |
| Anna: cuándo |
| Anna: cuándo |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: quién |
| Eric: who, whom |
| Anna: quién [slowly] |
| Anna: quién |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: ir |
| Eric: to go |
| Anna: ir [slowly] |
| Anna: ir |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: saber |
| Eric: to know, to know how |
| Anna: saber [slowly] |
| Anna: saber |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: creer |
| Eric: to believe, to think |
| Anna: creer [slowly] |
| Anna: creer |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: gente |
| Eric: people |
| Anna: gente [slowly] |
| Anna: gente |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Anna: poco, poca |
| Eric: a bit, a little, few, rarely |
| Anna: poco, poca [slowly] |
| Anna: poco, poca |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Anna: The first word we're going to look at is creer. Creer is a Spanish verb used with various meanings. |
| Eric: The first meaning is "to think" or "to believe." |
| Anna: An example sentence of that would be, Eso creo, which means "I believe so." |
| Eric: The second meaning is “to think,” “judge,” or “suppose something.” |
| Anna: An example sentence of that would be, Creía que vendrías, which means, "I thought you would come." |
| Eric: The third meaning is to have confidence in a person "to believe in them." |
| Anna: Such as Creo en Dios, which would be "I believe in God." Or Creo en ti, meaning, "I believe in you." |
| Eric: The next word we'll look at is... |
| Anna: Gente. Gente is a Spanish singular feminine noun that refers to a group of people. It's usually translated as "people." |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: You could say, Hay mucha gente en la calle, which means, "There are a lot of people on the street." |
| Eric: And what's our last word? |
| Anna: The last word we'll look at is poca. Poca is an adjective that means "few" or "a little." |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: Sure. You could say, Hay poca comida, which means, "There’s a little food." |
| Eric: There is also a masculine form of this word, correct? |
| Anna: Yes. It's poco, and is used with masculine nouns. |
| Eric: And how about a plural version? |
| Anna: Sure. Since poca is an adjective, there are plural forms as well. Those would be pocos and pocas. And an example sentence would be Quedan pocos chocolates, meaning, "There are a few chocolates left." |
| Eric: Okay, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use interrogative words and expressions in Spanish. |
| Anna: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase, ¿Cuándo es la fiesta? |
| Eric: Which we translated as, "When is the party?" |
| Anna: Asking questions is the best way to get information about whatever you want to know. Knowing which interrogative word to use and when to use it will help us in our conversations in Spanish. |
| Eric: That's right. So, in English, the five "w" words can be used to gather information about almost anything. Those are "who," "what," "when," "where," and "why." And we also have “how” and “how much” or “how many.” |
| Anna: In Spanish, those words are ¿Quién? meaning "who;" ¿Qué?—"what;" ¿Cuándo?—"when;" ¿Dónde?—"where;" ¿Por qué?—"why;" ¿Cómo?—“how;” and ¿Cuánto?—“how much” or “how many.” |
| Eric: Also, when writing questions in Spanish, always remember that there are two question marks, not just one. |
| Anna: Exactly. The first question mark is at the beginning question phrase and it's upside down. The second question mark is at the end of the sentence and is written just like English. |
| Eric: So the first word we'll look at is "who." |
| Anna: In Spanish, that’s ¿Quién?. ¿Quién? is an interrogative adverb that can be used in questions that ask about the identity of a person. One example sentence could be ¿Quién eres? which means, "Who are you?" |
| Eric: Next, we'll look at "what." |
| Anna: Or ¿Qué?¿Qué? can actually have a lot of possible meanings, but in this lesson, we'll look at expressing wonder or pondering the nature, quantity, or intensity of something. For example, ¿Qué és eso? which means, "What’s that?" |
| Eric: The next word we'll look at is "when." |
| Anna: Which is ¿Cuándo?.¿Cuándo? is an interrogative adverb that can be used to ask about "when" something happens. An example sentence would be ¿Cuándo es el partido? which means, "When is the match?" |
| Eric: Next, we'll take a look at, "where." |
| Anna: Which is ¿Dónde? Dónde is an adverb that indicates position or location. Its translation in English is "where." Some examples sentences would be ¿Dónde está la estación?, which means, "Where’s the station?" Or ¿Dónde estás? which means, "Where are you?" |
| Eric: Then, we'll look at "why," which is... |
| Anna: ¿Por qué? ¿Por qué? can be used in questions. Por is a preposition, and qué is an interrogative pronoun. |
| Eric: That's right. These two words are sometimes playfully translated as "for what" as in "for what reason," but together, they mean "why" in English. |
| Anna: Right. Some example sentences would be ¿Por qué comes huevos para desayunar? which means, "Why do you eat eggs for breakfast?" And ¿Por qué no bailamos? which means "Why don't we dance?" |
| Eric: Then, we have “how.” |
| Anna: Which is ¿Cómo? as in ¿Cómo llego a la estación? or, “How can I reach the station?” |
| Eric: And the last interrogative adverb we will learn in this lesson is “how much” or “how many.” |
| Anna: Which is ¿Cuánto? This word can be used to ask about quantities or prices, such as ¿Cuánto cuesta? Or, “How much is it?” |
| HOMEWORK |
| Eric: Before we go, let’s give the answer to the previous lesson’s homework. |
| Anna: Okay, for the tarea, the sentence in order should be: Ellos quieren una pizza. |
| Eric: And this time, your homework will be to choose the correct interrogative adverb for each of the following cases. |
| Anna: 1) ¿(blank) dulces tienes en tu mano? |
| 2) ¿(blank) es tu cumpleaños? |
| 3) ¿(blank) es él? |
Outro |
| Eric: So fill in the blanks and we’ll let you know the answers in the next lesson. That just about does it for this lesson, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Anna: Thanks for listening! ¡Hasta luego! |
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