COmo and quE (please explain)

Question

I need a quick help in understanding the difference between cOmo and quE

                                      as in
                             A quE te dedicas?

                           Why use quE and not cOmo?

What is a rule I can use to decide which of the two is aproptiate for any given situation

Answer 1

Hello Christopher

Welcome to the SpanishDict forum

Do you mean you want to understand the difference between cOmo and QuE?

The first Spanish word is sometimes written with an accent

¿Cómo.....? and when it is written in this way means what, for example:

ex ¿Cómo se llama Usted? = What is your name?

It can also be written with an accent and mean, How? as in How can I learn to do something?

¿Cómo puedo aprender a hablar español? = How can I learn to speak Spanish?

or ¿Cómo sabes? = How do you know?

or, it can mean, what? = ¿Cómo? used like we would use 'Pardon?' in English if we didn't hear something.

The word como without the accent means 'as' or 'like'

The context (or situation) will determine what any word or sentence means; in different situations the same word can mean something different depending on whether the word has an accent or not and the other words that appear with it in the sentence!

I cannot remember any simple rules that help you to always know with total certainty what any word will mean ...it will vary according to how you intend to use it! Rules often have so many exceptions that they end up oversimplifying what to do and confuse people trying to remember them all!

Concerning your example,

¿A qué te dedicas? = What job do you do? (Literally: to what do you dedicate yourself?)

This is simply how the Spanish people express this idea. We say in English What job do you do?

We don't say, 'How do you do your job?' when we want to ask what job they do.

Qué with the accent means what as in the example:

What time is it? =¿Qué hora es?

The word 'que' without the accent is a relative pronoun and it can mean 'that' or 'what' and it is used to join sentences!

ex.1. ¡Ella no se había dado cuenta de que ya él se había ido!

= She didn't realize 'that" he had already left!

ex 2: No entiendo lo que has dicho.

= I do not understand 'what' ( literally: that which) you have said!

I hope this helps

Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor