Little confused with ¿Qué and ¿Cómo

Question

I am learning Spanish. If I understood correctly ¿Qué means ´What´ and ¿Cómo means ´How´

 

I got confused after seeing the below 2 sentences

 

• ¿Qué edad tienes? - How old are you?
  Does that mean What old are you?. Why ¿Qué is used instead of ¿Cómo?
   
• ¿Cómo te llamas? - What is your name?
  Does that mean how is your name?. Why ¿Cómo is used instead of ¿Qué?
  (I believe it is `How do you call yourself?´. Correct me if I am wrong)

Welcome to SpanishDict, Thiagarajan. - rac1, Sep 3, 2017

Answer 1

Here goes: "Qué" most of the time means "what" In some cases it can mean "which" Most people have a problem with "Qué and cuál" either of which can mean "what" or "which" depending on what comes next.

"Cómo" is "how." "Cómo te llamas?" Really means "How (do) you call yourself?"

Cómo is how, te is yourself and llamas is you call. The word order is often different in Spanish,

A literal word for word translation of "what is your name?" is cuál es tu nombre? But the other (¿Cómo te llamas?) is more common.

"¿Qué edad tienes" is really "What age do you have?" More common is "¿Cuántos años tienes?" Which word for word translates "How many years do you have?"

When you study foreign language expect that things will be said much differently. The expressions will be totally different. The grammar is different and the word order is very different. You cannot just go to a dictionary and start picking out words. It just doesn't work that way.

Good luck in your studies.

Have a badge. :) - bosquederoble, Sep 3, 2017

Answer 2

I agree with Daniela2041. As you notice, those are not literal translations.

I could add that is because the question marks and what you need to construct the phrase: For example, Edad is a sustantive, while old is an adjetive. Using "qué"/"what"' implies that you're expecting an specific type of answer (the number). Llamar is a verb and name is a sustantive. Using "cómo"/"how" somehow implies that the answer is a way that the person wants to be called or the pronunciation.

Welcome to SpanishDict, Linkyway. - rac1, Sep 3, 2017

Answer 3

In reality ¿Qué edad tienes? means literally What age do you have?
But since nobody says that in English , they translated it as what people say with the same meaning : how old are you?

¿Cómo te llamas? means literally How are you called?
But since nobody says that in English, they translated it as What's your name?

They are not translations word by word .