Sentence/Question construction in Spanish.

Question

Hey everyone, I was wondering if there is any information related to sentence/question building available in a lesson or just somewere on the website.

Here is an example of what I mean; (Lesson 1.13.) "¿Qué tiene que hacer Martín?" This means; "what (does) Martin have to do?"

Now if I would do it backwards, and try to translate "what (does) Martin have to do?" into Spanish, I would say; "¿Qué Martín tiene que hacer?" Which I think is incorrect, or at least not the same as the original question.

Maybe there are no strict "rules" but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it? I am only at lesson 1.13, so it might come up in a later lesson.

Any help will be much appreciated,

Steven

:p thx, I'll edit it. Damn I make that mistake a lot - Stevixo, Aug 12, 2010

oops sorry I decided to edit that comment lol anyway what i was going to say was good question and I see that English is not your first language so even better but just a little correction - it's 'have' to do - what does Martin have to do? - Kiwi-Girl, Aug 12, 2010

well english is not my first language (dutch is) However I was hoping you wouldn't notice. It feels like a first language, almost all my university books are in english. - Stevixo, Aug 12, 2010

ja ja well I had to look at your profile to make sure so it wasn't that obvious :) - Kiwi-Girl, Aug 12, 2010

Answer 1

Here's a couple of reference articles which may help

Questions How do I ask a question in Spanish

Keep up the good work

thx that looks realy usefull - Stevixo, Aug 12, 2010

de nada :) - Kiwi-Girl, Aug 12, 2010

Answer 2

Stevixo,

I lived in Amsterdam for a year at the age of 3 and again at the age of 12. It astonished me even then how well the Dutch speak English. But I do have a comment about your example... "¿Qué Martín tiene que hacer?" is not so good. Really it is more natural for the subject to follow the verb, as in "¿Qué tiene que hacer Martín?" This construction (verb at the end) is common in statements, even more so in questions."

Sigues estudiando,

J

Answer 3

To come back on this subject. I now noticed that lesson 2.1 has clear information on questions.