Is "¿Qué es la fecha?" grammatically incorrect?

Question

I have learned the question 'what is the date?' as '¿Cuál es la fecha?', but the word ¿cuál? can mean what. Would saying '¿Qué es la fecha?' be incorrect in a Spanish speaking country?

Answer 1

This frase has many variations depending on the country. I would say: ¿A cómo estamos hoy? / ¿Qué es la fecha de hoy? because these variants are common in Mexico City. But it really doesn´t matter because all of the other variants are acceptable as well and will be understood anywhere Spanish is spoken.

☺ - FELIZ77, Feb 17, 2015

Answer 2

'¿Qué es la fecha?'

This is a grammatically correct question that asks for the definition of “la fecha”, what is the date at its core- “Qué es” asks for a definition, although “qué” in front of a noun can be "which" in English.

Here is a possible answer (stolen from wikipedia): La fecha es, en el sentido usual, una indicación de tiempo orientada a definir un día único, en general en referencia al calendario gregoriano.

But if you want to know what the date is today, you need to use cuál. Which (of the possible dates today could be) is the date (today)?

Which and what do not have a one to one match with qué and cuál in Spanish, and attention needs to be paid to where the differences are when learning the other language.

And your final answer is................? :) - chileno, Feb 17, 2015

¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy? Is what I would have said, as I learned “cuál” and “qué” to the way that they are used in Spain. :) - bosquederoble, Feb 17, 2015

Answer 3

Hello Esther_Park,

Welcome to the SpanishDict forum

You said/asked:

I have learned the question 'what is the date?' as '¿Cuál es la fecha?', but the word ¿cuál? can mean what. Would saying '¿Qué es la fecha?' be incorrect in a Spanish speaking country?

Bosque's answer is correct. You would say ¿Cuál es la fecha, hoy?

You can also say: ¿A qué fecha estamos? = What's the date, today? /What's today's date?

¿Qué fecha es hoy? = What's the date, today? / What date is it today?

I hope this helps

Answer 4

Basically "Qué" and "Cuál" both mean "what". One of the big differences is that "Qué + ser" = "what is the definition of ", where as "Cuál + ser" = "What is ______".

For example:

"¿Qué es el plan?" = "What is the definition of "the plan""?

"Cuál es el plan" = "What's the plan?"