Questions: directions, prices, times
Magenta week. Seven question words, and enough fixed phrases to find a station, ask a price and understand the answer.
The question words
Every one of them carries a written accent, and that accent is what marks it as a question rather than a statement word.
- ¿Dónde?Where?¿Dónde está la estación?Where is the station?
- ¿Cuándo?When?
- ¿Cómo?How?¿Cómo está usted?How are you?
- ¿Por qué?Why?
Two words with an accent. Porque, one word without, means because.
- ¿Quién?Who?
- ¿Cuánto?How much?¿Cuánto cuesta?How much does it cost?
- ¿Qué?What? / Which?¿Qué hora es?What time is it?
What the colours above mean
10 of 10 colours so farA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Describes a noun.
Modifies a verb or an adjective.
the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
Links words together — to, in, of, for.
Joins two parts of a sentence.
Opens a question — where, when, how, why.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
Direction phrases stay as grey chunks. A la izquierda is one unit — you will never need to take it apart.
The upside-down question mark
Spanish opens a question with ¿ as well as closing it with ?. It looks decorative and it is not: it tells a reader that a rising intonation starts here, which matters because Spanish word order in a question is often identical to a statement. When you write, use both.
Asking directions
All chunks. Say them whole.
- [¿Dónde está…?]Where is…?
- [a la izquierda]on the left
- [a la derecha]on the right
- [todo recto]straight on
- [al lado de]next to
- [enfrente de]opposite
- [cerca de]near to
- [lejos de]far from
- [estoy buscando…]I'm looking for…
Prices, times and opening hours
- ¿Cuánto cuesta?How much does it cost?
- [¿Cuánto es?]How much is it?
The shorter, more common version.
- [Es demasiado caro]It's too expensive
- ¿Qué hora es?What time is it?
- ¿A qué hora?At what time?
- abierto / abiertaopenEl café está abierto.The café is open.
- cerrado / cerradaclosedLa tienda está cerrada.The shop is closed.
Adjectives agree, and estar is the verb you need
Abierto and cerrado are adjectives, so they are purple and they agree — bold for a masculine noun, slanted for a feminine one. And they take estar rather than ser, because being open is a state, not an identity. That is the ser-and-estar rule from Week 5 doing real work.
Sentence frames
- 1
[Estoy buscando] la estación.
I'm looking for the station.
- 2
¿Dónde está la farmacia?
Where is the pharmacy?
- 3
¿Cuánto cuesta?
How much does it cost?
Daily mini-tasks
Listening this week
Español con Juan — short episodes
Podcast apps and YouTube
Slow, funny, entirely in Spanish. Juan repeats himself constantly on purpose, which is exactly what you need at this stage.
What stuck?
Check it before you close the page.
Up to 10 of this week's words and frames. Say each one out loud before you look, and say whether you think you have it. Guessing first and then checking is what makes it stick — reading the answer feels better and does less.