Questions can be direct, as in ‘Where is Pedro?’, or indirect, as in ‘Nobody
knew where Pedro was’. A direct question is a complete sentence in itself
and usually requires an answer. An indirect question is only part of a
sentence and does not in itself require an answer.
Within the category of direct questions, there are two basic types: (i) those
introduced by an interrogative word (see Table 27.1) and (ii) those that
require a ‘yes/no’ answer, such as ¿Es difícil leerlo?‘Is it difficult to read it?’.
In English some form of the auxiliary verb ‘do’ is often required in a direct
question. In Spanish, questions are never formed in this way. Instead they
are marked as such by reversal of the usual subject + verb word order, and
by a question mark at their beginning (inverted) and their end:
¿Fue Miguel a la cena? Did Miguel attend the dinner?
A preposition in Spanish cannot be ‘stranded’ at the end of a question.
Instead it must be placed immediately before the interrogative word with
which it is associated:
¿En qué habitación estás?(not ׿Qué habitación estás en?×)
What room are you in?Subject-verb inversion
In both direct and indirect questions the Spanish subject is frequently
placed after the verb:
¿Qué disco ha comprado What disk has Javier bought?
Javier?
Nadie sabe dónde está el No one knows where the
hospital. hospital is.27.1