Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Question tags

Spanish offers no direct equivalent to the English question tags, such as

‘isn’t it?’ and ‘didn’t I?’ However, the word verdad‘truth’ can often be

used to achieve a tag-like effect:

Hace frío, ¿verdad? It’s cold, isn’t it?

The word no‘no(t)’ can be used on its own in a similar way to verdad,

except that less certainty on the part of the speaker is implied:

El frailecillo es una especie de The puffin is a kind of bird,

pájaro, ¿no? isn’t it?

Particularly in Latin America, either ¿no es cierto?or ¿no es verdad?may

also be used:

Prefieres hablar primero, ¿no You prefer to speak first,

es cierto? don’t you?

Exclamations

Exclamations in Spanish have an exclamation mark at their beginning

(inverted) and their end. Exclamatory words always carry a written accent.

Qué

Qué + noun usually translates ‘what (a)’ (without the indefinite article in

Spanish). A qualifying adjective after the noun is usually preceded by either

másor tan:

¡Qué lío! What a mess!

¡Qué mala suerte! What bad luck!

¡Qué viaje más/tan horrible! What a horrible journey!

Note: In phrases in which a noun in Spanish corresponds to an adjective in English,

quétranslates ‘so’ rather than ‘what’: ¡Qué vergüenza me da!‘I’m so ashamed!’,

¡Qué calor hace!‘It’s so hot!’.

With adjectives and adverbs quécorresponds to ‘how’ or ‘so’ in English:

¡Qué tozuda es Lola! Lola is so stubborn!

¡Qué despacio va este autobús! How slowly this bus is going!

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Questions
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