cuando vs cuándo / What's the difference?

Question

I know they both mean when, but why are there two whens?

Answer 1

¿Cuándo ...? the question form

Cuando .... the statement form

Por ejemplo"

¿Cuándo vas a llegar? When are you arriving?

Llego cuando llego. I'll get there when I get there.

That helped me alot. I also didn't know the difference between the two "cuandos." That was a very good answer. It was short, simple, and sweet. Nice job. :) - leenearene3, Apr 28, 2011

el gusto es mío :) - Kiwi-Girl, Apr 28, 2011

Answer 2

Apart from the usage of both "when", there is a difference in pronunciation. Think of the differences between "He is the suspect" and "I suspect something" in terms of stress. "Cuándo" is pronounced with stress, while "cuando" is not.

How can a two-syllable word not have stress? - Sabor, Dec 31, 2010

Easy: by being pronounced without stress. There are not a lot, but a few words in Spanish have no stress at all. Open a thread if you are curious, and I'll give you more details. - lazarus1907, Dec 31, 2010

When words end with a vowel a "n" or "s" the stress is on the next to the last syllable (or vowel), except, cuando...it's not accented on the last syllable, so how can a two-syllable word not have stress? - Maria-Russell, Dec 31, 2010

Huh? I don't get it..D: - leenearene3, Apr 28, 2011

Answer 3

Common question words are ¿Adónde? ¿Dónde? ¿De dónde? ¿Cómo? ¿Cuál (-es)? ¿Cuándo? ¿Cuánto (-a)? ¿Cuántos (-as)? ¿Qué? ¿De qué? ¿Quién (-es)? ¿A quién (-es)? ¿Con quién (-es)? ¿De quién (-es)? ¿Por qué? ¿Para qué?

When these same words are used as statements they lose their accents.

Gracias! This is also a very good answer, just like the one on the very top. "Kiwi Girl" I believe is the username. Anyways, this answer was also very helpful. Job well done.(: - leenearene3, Apr 28, 2011

Answer 4

Cuándo with the tilde would be in the form of a question".Cuándo va?"Cuando without the tilde would be in the answer or in a statement .Good question...

This helped a lot! Thank you!(: - leenearene3, Apr 28, 2011

Answer 5

Well people is kinda right but not fully. Cuándo gets it's tilde whenever it is used in exlamation or in interogation, but also when you are using it to refer to the question. It's like "Qué, Cómo, Dónde, Porqué".

For examples: "Cuándo llegás?" (When are you arriving?) "No sé cuándo llego." (I don't know when) "Cuándo llegue!" (When I arrive)

And it doesn't wear a tilde in almost every other case,

"Cuando escribo español tengo que observar la acentuación"

I've seen this "No sé cuándo llego" referred to as a "hidden question" word. - pesta, Sep 19, 2011

"its tilde" - no apostrophe on possessive adjective. - pesta, Sep 19, 2011

Welcome to the forum! - pesta, Sep 19, 2011