Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Quién ‘who’, de quién ‘whose’

Quién/quiénesis a pronoun that can be used onlywith reference to persons.

It agrees in number with the person(s) referred to.

When used as a direct object it is preceded by the personal a:

¿Quién vive allí? Who lives there?

¿A quién has visto? Who did you see?

¿Quiénes son los dueños del bar? Who are the owners of

the bar?

De quién/quiénesexpresses the direct or indirect question ‘whose?’:

¿De quiénes son esos asientos? Whose seats are those?

No sé de quién eran los I don’t know whose the

documentos. documents were.

Cuándo ‘when’, dónde ‘where’ and cómo ‘how’

These are interrogative adverbs. Depending on the associated verb, a prepo-

sition may be required before cuándoand dónde(a+ dónde> adónde):

¿Cuándo cerraron el hospital? When did they close the

hospital?

¿Hasta cuándo te quedaste? Till what time did you stay?

¿Adónde va Juan? Where is Juan going to?

Se desconoce cómo entraron los It isn’t known how the

ladrones. thieves entered.

Note also the special use of cómo with the verb llamar‘to call’:

¿Cómo se llama tu hermana? What is your sister called?

Note: The rule according to which the conjunction cuando(with no accent) calls for

the subjunctive when reference is made to future time (see 12.2.2.1) does not gener-

ally apply to the interrogative adverb cuándo:Cuando veaa Lola se lo diré‘When I

see Lola I’ll tell her’, but No sé cuándo veréa Lola‘I don’t know when I’ll see Lola’.

Cuánto/a/os/as ‘how much/many’

Cuántois a quantifying adjective or pronoun and so agrees in number and

gender with the noun to which it refers:

27.2.5

27.2.4

27.2.3^1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

27

Questions
and
exclamations

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