Questions: intonation and word order

¿Tienes hermanos?¿Dónde vive tu hermana?Do you have brothers or sisters?Where does your sister live?

Spanish builds a question without any helper verb like English do. A yes/no question usually keeps the same words as the statement and is marked by the intonation in speech and by ¿ … ? in writing. An information question starts with a question word and then puts the verb next.

Quick shortcut: statement Tienes hermanos. → question ¿Tienes hermanos? (same words, a question intonation, ¿ at the start and ? at the end). With a noun subject the verb can also come first: ¿Vive Ana aquí? / ¿Ana vive aquí? For information, the question word opens the question and the verb usually follows it: ¿Dónde vive Ana? There is no do in Spanish.

Yes/no questions

To ask a yes/no question, take a statement and say it with a question intonation; the exact melody varies from region to region. Nothing else has to change:

When the subject is a noun or a name, Spanish often moves the verb in front of it, and this is as natural as leaving the statement order: ¿Vive Ana aquí? and ¿Ana vive aquí? both mean "Does Ana live here?" The verb-first order is especially common when the subject is a longer phrase: ¿Habla español tu profesor de matemáticas?

A subject pronoun is usually left out, as in a statement, because the verb ending already shows the person (see subject pronouns): ¿Hablas español? is more natural than ¿Tú hablas español?, and the pronoun appears when you contrast people: ¿Y tú? ¿Tú tienes hermanos?

Spanish answers with sí or no, and a negative answer often has no twice, once as the answer and once before the verb (see negation with no):

• ¿Tienes hermanos? → Sí, tengo dos hermanos.
• ¿Vive Ana aquí? → No, no vive aquí.

Writing questions: ¿ and ?

Written Spanish marks a question at both ends: ¿ opens it and ? closes it. The opening mark goes where the question actually begins, which is not always the start of the sentence:

• ¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?)
• Ana, ¿dónde vives? (Ana, where do you live?)
• Si tienes tiempo, ¿vamos al cine? (If you have time, shall we go to the cinema?)

In everyday texting the opening ¿ is often skipped, but in school and in formal writing both marks are used: ✅ ¿Tienes hermanos?, not ❌ Tienes hermanos?

Information questions: the question word comes first

An information question begins with a question word, and the verb usually comes right after it. A noun subject then typically follows the verb, and a pronoun subject is usually left out (¿Dónde vives?):

• ¿Dónde vive tu hermana? (Where does your sister live?)
• ¿Cuándo llega el tren? (When does the train arrive?)
• ¿Qué quieres? (What do you want?)
• ¿Cómo está tu padre? (How is your father?)

The usual, neutral pattern is question word + verb + subject. A subject placed between the question word and the verb (❌ ¿Dónde tu hermana vive?) is not standard in most varieties of Spanish, although in some regions, especially the Caribbean, speakers do say things like ¿Qué tú quieres? with a subject pronoun. The full list of question words, with their accents and meanings, has its own lesson: Question words (qué, quién, dónde, cuándo, cómo, por qué, cuánto).

A preposition stays with its question word at the start; Spanish doesn't leave it at the end the way English Where are you from? does:

• ✅ ¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?), never ❌ ¿Dónde eres de?
• ✅ ¿Con quién vives? (Who do you live with?), never ❌ ¿Quién vives con?

Confirming with a tag

To check something you already believe, you can add a short tag at the end of a statement: ¿verdad? or ¿no? The tag is written as its own little question, after a comma:

• Hablas español, ¿verdad? (You speak Spanish, right?)
• Hace frío, ¿no? (It's cold, isn't it?)

Unlike the English tag (isn't it? doesn't she?), the Spanish tag doesn't change with the verb or the subject.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Tienes hermanos? (in writing) → ✅ ¿Tienes hermanos? (the opening ¿ marks where the question begins)
• ❌ ¿Dónde tu hermana vive? → ✅ ¿Dónde vive tu hermana? (after a question word the verb usually comes before a noun subject)
• ❌ ¿Dónde eres de? → ✅ ¿De dónde eres? (the preposition goes in front of the question word)

Quick check

What is the correct Spanish for each item?

1. Ana vive aquí. as a question (two ways are possible):
2. The words vive / dónde / tu hermana in the right order:
3. Tienes hermanos with its missing punctuation:
4. "Do you speak Spanish?":
5. The tag in Hablas español, ¿ ___ ?:
6. A full negative answer to ¿Tienes hermanos?:
7. "Where are you from?", from the words eres / de / dónde:

Key takeaways

• A yes/no question usually keeps the statement's words and is marked by intonation: Tienes hermanos. → ¿Tienes hermanos?
• Spanish has no helper verb like do: ¿Hablas español?
• With a noun subject the verb may come first or the subject may stay before it: ¿Vive Ana aquí? / ¿Ana vive aquí?
• Written questions open with ¿ where the question begins and close with ?
• An information question starts with a question word, then usually the verb, then a noun subject (a pronoun subject is usually left out): ¿Dónde vive tu hermana? · ¿Dónde vives?
• A preposition stays with its question word: ¿De dónde eres?
• A tag such as ¿verdad? or ¿no? turns a statement into a request for confirmation, and it never changes.