Game: Qué/Cuál and que/cual

Question

I still sometimes have trouble (especially with more subtle or complex sentences) deciding whether to use qué or cuál (with a question) or que or cual (with a statement). I'm thinking I'm not alone in that. So, here's a game to help all of us practice.

The format is simple:

Take the given sentence, decide whether qué, cuál, que or cual is correct in that context, give a reason why and then create a new sentence for the next person. It's a lot like other games on SD, but with no translating going on- we'll work directly Spanish. JulianChivis has very kindly agreed to be the expert moderater for us and I'll be on here regularly to give support and help moderate. Enjoy!

It will look like this:

Given sentence: ¿Cuál/qué es la diferencia entre calor y caliente?

Should say: ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre calor y caliente?

Because: "Qué"+ ser would be asking the definition of, whereas "Cuál" +ser is asking what the actual difference is

New sentence: No sé que/cual palabra debo usar.

Really? This many views and only Marianne is brave enough to jump in? It's just for fun- even if cual and que can be a little intimidating:) - la-maestra-roja, Sep 26, 2010

Answer 1

Given sentence: No sé que/cual palabra debo usar.

Should say: No sé que palabra debo usar.

Because: Qué normally is most often used before nouns.

New sentence: ¿Qué/Cuál es tu número de teléfono?

Awesome Marianne! But the format is a little different- "¿Qué/cuál es tu número de teléfono?" - la-maestra-roja, Sep 23, 2010

Why que? Aren't we asking which word to use, and not what the words mean? - pesta, Sep 23, 2010

"¿Cuál de las palabras....." or "¿Qué palabra................" - 005faa61, Sep 23, 2010

¿Qué palabra...? but Marianne's answer uses "que", not "qué" - pesta, Sep 23, 2010

Pesta, the only difference is that, in this case Marianne is making a statement instead of a question so she's used 'que', if it were a question as in JulianChivis' example it would be "qué" - la-maestra-roja, Sep 23, 2010

Both Que and Cual use accent marks when they are used in questions or exclamitory statements - 005faa61, Sep 23, 2010

Answer 2

Given sentence: ¿Qué/cuál es tu número de teléfono?

Should say: ¿Cuál es tu numero de teléfono?

Because: Qué es would mean I was saying I want to know what "your telephone number" means, as in, I want to comprehend the definition of that phrase. But 'cuál' suggests I want to know which telephone number is yours out of all of the possible ones.

New sentence: ¿Es ésta la escuela a que/cual asististe?

: - ) - 005faa61, Sep 23, 2010

Answer 3

Here's a question for anybody who can help:

When playing the game show 'Jeopardy', players ask the question when they are given a clue or 'answer' on the board. For example, the clue given might be "Bogotá" and the player would say, "What is: the capital of columbia?" But often the 'questions' are things like, "what is: going to the super market?"

So, in this case are we using qué or cuál? (If we were playing the game in español)