Spanish Question Words: qué, cómo, dónde, cuándo, por qué

You cannot get far in a real conversation without asking things: where is it, how much is it, what time, why. Spanish question words are few and regular — learn seven of them and you can ask almost anything.

The short version: Spanish question words always carry a written accent (qué, cómo, dónde…), the verb usually comes straight after the question word, and you do not need a helper verb like English "do".

The seven you need

The accent-mark rule that trips everyone up

When these words ask a question, they take an accent: qué, cómo, dónde. The same words without an accent are ordinary connectors that mean something different:

¿Qué haces? = What are you doing? — but Sé que trabajas = I know that you work.
¿Cómo estás? = How are you? — but Es alto como tú = He's tall like you.
¿Por qué? = Why? (two words, accent) — but porque = because (one word, no accent).

Word order: forget English "do"

English inserts a helper: "Where do you live?" Spanish does not. The question word leads, the verb follows, the subject (if any) comes after: ¿Dónde vives? — literally "Where live-you?". Just: question word + verb.

Common mistakes

Using qué for "which". Before a noun, "which" is usually qué in speech (¿Qué libro?), but for "which one of these" use cuál: ¿Cuál prefieres? (Which do you prefer?).
Forgetting agreement on cuánto. It changes with the noun: ¿Cuántos años tienes? (masculine plural), ¿Cuánta agua? (feminine).
Dropping the opening ¿. Spanish questions open with an inverted question mark — it is not optional in writing.

Once you can ask questions, the next step is understanding the answers, which usually means verb tenses — start with the present tense. And to build the questions themselves you'll lean on the core words in the 100 most common Spanish words.