Basic question format: Who vs. What

Question

hillo. good day to you! i am garriel a new spanish student from Philippines and yo sé como hablar tres lenguas como filipino, inglés y cebuano) and i want to know Spanish that is why i study so hard, but without the opinion of of others and your help i cannot do this by my own, so i wrote this letter or questions to ask from you a clarification regarding my ongoing lesson in Spanish !( i preferred specially Spanish teachers).

I am still in basic now and i am using the book of john kenneth leslie from north western university and his book entitled spanish for conversation-- a beginning grammar. and each of his lesson has a questions but written ins Spanish.. so that i can understand it i translated it on my own! from his lesson 1 here are some of his question from the story he has given and i translated this as:

1. Qué hablan los españoles? --- what the Spaniards speak?
2. Quienes hablan italiano? -- who speak Italian?
3. dónde hablan Español? --- where they speak Spanish?
4. qué lengua hablan en francia? --- what language they speak in France?
5. qué hablan en el brasil? --- what they speak in Brazil?

questions:

1. hablan -- is the conjugation from the verb hablar right? w/c means "to speak" and hablan means "they speak" and if we are going to translate his questions to word by word it would result to a weird sound and erroneous grammar in English so i translated it by though and am i correct of what i did? and was the author right in constructing his questions?

2. look the 3 types of questions above (1-3) , they have the same position w/c is the interrogative word or question word is on the beg. followed by the verb and followed by the subject, is this (always) the rule in constructing questions? if not how and why and when? and also this 3 types of questions has different meaning.

3. how would i know if the question is asking for what the Spaniards speak or who speak Spanish! what are the techniques?

please answer it correctly and please back it up with supporting lessons... thanks and que tengas un buen dia! muchas gracias.....

Please don´t use abbreviations or "text speak" like W/C because people learning English will not understand you. - missy8888, Apr 10, 2012

Also, please spell correctly: hillo=hello! Of course, that might just be a typo . . .;-) - t1funnyface, Apr 10, 2012

ok next time.. i'll do my best .. - garriel, Apr 11, 2012

Answer 1

• 1.¿Qué hablan los españoles? --- What do the Spaniards speak?
• 2.¿Quiénes hablan el italiano? -- Who speaks Italian?
• 3.¿Dónde hablan el español? --- Where do they speak Spanish?
• 4.¿Qué lengua hablan en Francia? --- What language do they speak in France?
• 5.¿Qué hablan en Brasil? --- What do they speak in Brazil? questions:

1.hablan -- is the conjugation from the verb hablar right? w/c means "to speak" and hablan means "they speak" and if we are going to translate his questions to word by word it would result to a weird sound and erroneous grammar in English so i translated it by though and am i correct of what i did? and was the author right in constructing his questions?

2.look the 3 types of questions above (1-3) , they have the same position w/c is the interrogative word or question word is on the beg. followed by the verb and followed by the subject, is this (always) the rule in constructing questions? if not how and why and when? and also this 3 types of questions has different meaning.

3.how would i know if the question is asking for what the Spaniards speak or who speak Spanish! what are the techniques?

First, I have made corrections in bold.

On to your questions...

1. Yes, hablan is a third person plural form of hablar in present indicative or "Present tense." Yes, hablar means "to speak" and hablan means "they speak." It is not erroneous grammar when translated to English. The format of questions is different in Spanish, putting the verb in front of the subject. That is why you wouldn´t translate it as "What they speak the Spaniards?" because that is wrong. You would say "What do the Spaniards speak?" The author constructed the questions correctly, yes. I made changes to your translations and to your typing in bold.

2. Since you are a beginner with the language, I will not make it very complicated for you. Basically, yes, you are correct. That is the construction: Question word, verb, subject. More or less this is always the case. When you add clauses or adjectives, things move around, but this is the basic construction.

3. You kind of answered your own question here: "how would i know if the question is asking for what the Spaniards speak or who speak Spanish!" There is your answer. The question would contain "What" (Qué) or "Who" (Quién). So look at the question word used. It will indicate if they are asking who or what. Also, after the verb, the subject will indicate what these questions are asking. If one of the questions above lists a language after the verb, then it most likely is asking who speaks it. If it lists a person or a country, then it is probably asking what they speak. This isn´t a grammar rule, but instead it is what I´ve deduced from the questions you´ve provided. This isn´t the case with all questions in the entire language. Just the ones you gave us here.

¿Quién habla el español? Who speaks Spanish (language)?

¿Qué hablan los italianos? What do the Italians (people) speak ?

¿Qué hablan en Francia? What do they speak in France (country)?

Missy, you've worked really hard with this! :) - bandit51jd, Apr 10, 2012

muchas gracias missy .... eres muy buena!....... - garriel, Apr 11, 2012

thanks very much you are soo good....now i am enlighten..... keep it up.... God bless you... - garriel, Apr 11, 2012