¿Cuándo? vs. ¿A qué hora?

Question

In a practice sheet I am doing, I have to write questions for the responses given. These are the responses and the questions I wrote:

7) ¿Cuándo empieza la fiesta sopresa?

La fiesta sopresa empieza a las ocho en punto de la noche.

8) ¿A qué hora cierra el restaurante los lunes?

El restaurante cierra los lunes.

In the answer key, the answers are exactly as I wrote them except cuándo and a qué hora are reversed. Do these mean exactly the same thing or are the meanings of these two sentences actually any different with cuándo rather than a qué hora or vice versa?

Great Question, Jadey :)Thank you for asking it. I am sure that I will learn something useful /valuable from it :) Voting :) - FELIZ77, Feb 6, 2012

Answer 1

The answer to question 8 says 'The restaurant is closed on Mondays'.

Since it is closed for the entire Monday, I would choose the question to be '¿Cuándo cierra el restaurante?', 'When is the restaurant closed?'.

Because the time of closing is not really what we want to know here. If the restaurant is closed the whole day, does it have a 'closing time' that day?

Good catch mathslover! - ajaks, Feb 6, 2012

Thank you, Mathslover. ;) I totally missed that. I should have known that cierra means closed and knowing that, which one to use makes perfect sense. - Jadey7, Feb 7, 2012

Answer 2

Same as in English:

When does the...?

What time does the...?

The one that specifically requests the time is more likely to be used with events that start or finish at a specific time (e.g. scheduled events, opening & closing times).

When referring to the date and a qué hora referring to the time is a common difference. ¿Cuándo, dónde y a qué hora? When , where, and at what time? - 0074b507, Feb 6, 2012

I understand what each translates as, however in English it would be correct to say "What time does the surprise party start?" and "What time does the restaurant open on Mondays?" or "When does the party start?" and.... - Jadey7, Feb 6, 2012

"When does the restaurant open on Mondays?" The better question here is, is Spanish more precise than English? - Jadey7, Feb 6, 2012

Jadey I think that last question: "When does the restaurant open on Mondays?" is fine in English but is better translated into Spanish as: ¿A qué hora abierta el restuarante, los lunes? - FELIZ77, Feb 6, 2012

I say this because the meaning implied in the English is really at what time? I have found from experiience that when translating from English into Spanish that you really need to look at the implied meanings behind words and phrases. - FELIZ77, Feb 6, 2012

For example: we often say to children ''Take turns'' I have never seen this expression in a Spanish Dictionary but the implied meaning is to share'' so, we could translate it as: ''Please 'share' the car'' and use the verb compartir :to share - FELIZ77, Feb 6, 2012

Yes, I would say that Spanish is usually more precise :) - FELIZ77, Feb 6, 2012

Well, that answers my question. I had a feeling the answer to that would be yes. ;) And I understand what you mean with implied meanings. I've noticed that a lot. - Jadey7, Feb 6, 2012

Answer 3

A qué hora is asking for a specific time of day. (At what time? in english) Cuándo is asking for a general or specific answer, which could include an exact time, date, month, etc. (When? in english)

I think you are correct in switching up the questions. They are two different requests though, so they each merit a different response.