Interrogative Pronouns

01 Apr 2018

Definition

To initiate a question. English equivalents: “who”, “whom”, “whose”, “what”, and “which”.

Which? ¿Qué? ¿Cuál? ¿Cuáles?

Both Qué and Cuál can be used to mean the English word “which”, and when to use each can be confusing. Here are a couple of rules to help distinguish:

• Generally speaking, Qué precedes a noun and Cuál precedes a verb.
• If you want a definition, use Qué.
• If there are many possible answers, and you want to know which one, use Cuál.

Examples (followed by a noun v.s. a verb/preposition):

¿Qué vestido prefieres?	Which dress do you prefer?
¿Cuál prefieres?	Which (one) do you prefer?
¿Cuál de los vestidos prefieres?	Which of the dressess do you prefer?
¿Cuáles prefieres?	Which ones do you prefer?

Examples (definition v.s. one of many possibilities):

¿Qué es tu nombre?	What is your name? (definition of name)
Mi nombre es la palabra la gente usa cuando me llama	My name is the word people use to call me
¿Cuál es tu nombre?	What is your name? (which one of all the names is yours)
Mi nombre es Pedro	My name is Pedro