Questions to Ask People in Spanish
Twenty questions in Spanish with English glosses, ordered from a first introduction to the sort of thing you can ask once the conversation has warmed up. Each note covers how the phrasing lands, where the wording changes by country, and which English habits to drop.
The questions
Open any question for the note
¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?)
Why ask it
The informal form, which is standard between people of similar age almost everywhere. With someone older, in a shop or in any professional setting, use ¿Cómo se llama usted? The literal translation of what is your name, ¿Cuál es tu nombre?, is understood but sounds like a form being filled in.
¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?)
Why ask it
Expect the answer to be a city or a region rather than a country, and expect a follow-up question about your own origin. If someone hesitates, they may be from somewhere the answer is complicated; take whatever they give you and move on rather than narrowing it down.
¿Puedes hablar más despacio, por favor? (Can you speak more slowly, please?)
Why ask it
Worth learning before any conversation question, because the alternative is nodding through an answer you did not catch. Say it in the middle of their sentence rather than at the end; people who are asked afterwards tend to repeat the same speed at greater volume.
¿Cómo se dice esto en español? (How do you say this in Spanish?)
Why ask it
Point while you ask and the sentence does the rest of the work. It also converts your gaps into something the other person enjoys, since most speakers would rather teach you a word than watch you struggle silently for it.
¿Nos tuteamos? (Shall we use tú with each other?)
Why ask it
This settles the question rather than guessing at it, and asking is polite in itself. Usage varies sharply: in Spain strangers switch to tú within a minute, while in much of Colombia and Costa Rica usted stays in place between friends and even inside families.
¿A qué te dedicas? (What do you do?)
Why ask it
This is what people actually say. ¿Qué haces para vivir? is a word-for-word import from English and marks you immediately as a learner. The answer often names a place of work rather than a job title, which gives you your next question for free.
¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aquí? (How long have you been here?)
Why ask it
The llevar construction is the natural one for duration, and learning it here saves you from the literal how long have you been, which does not translate. Useful in a town where half the people you meet arrived from somewhere else.
¿Cómo es tu ciudad? (What's your city like?)
Why ask it
Cómo es asks what something is like; qué es asks what it is. Getting that pair right is worth more than a hundred vocabulary items, and the question itself hands a confident speaker several minutes of easy talking while you listen.
¿Tienes hermanos? (Do you have any brothers or sisters?)
Why ask it
Safer than ¿Tienes familia?, which is commonly heard as asking whether someone is married or has children. Siblings are neutral ground, and the plural hermanos covers brothers and sisters together, so you do not have to guess.
¿Qué haces los fines de semana? (What do you do at weekends?)
Why ask it
The habitual present is what you want here, not the future or the conditional, so this doubles as a chance to hear the tense used back at you. Answers usually involve family obligations, which is a more honest picture of a week than a list of hobbies.
¿Qué me recomiendas pedir? (What do you recommend I order?)
Why ask it
Better than asking what the local speciality is, because it commits them to a specific dish on the menu in front of you. It also makes a waiter or a neighbour an ally, and the answer is often not what the menu advertises.
¿Qué se come aquí que no se encuentra en otros sitios? (What do people eat here that you don't find elsewhere?)
Why ask it
The impersonal se construction lets you ask about a place rather than a person, which avoids putting anyone on the spot as a spokesman. Expect regional pride, and expect to be told firmly that the version in the next province along is wrong.
¿Esa palabra se usa en todas partes o solo aquí? (Is that word used everywhere, or only here?)
Why ask it
Ask this whenever a word surprises you. Spanish vocabulary varies enormously by country, and the answer keeps you from carrying a local term somewhere it means something else entirely. Speakers generally find the question flattering rather than tedious.
¿Te gusta vivir aquí? (Do you like living here?)
Why ask it
Simple to ask and it opens the door to complaint, which is where real conversation usually starts. A one-word sí with no elaboration often means the honest answer is more complicated and they are being careful with a stranger.
¿Qué echas de menos de tu país? (What do you miss about your country?)
Why ask it
Only for someone who has told you they came from elsewhere. In Spain echar de menos is standard; across most of Latin America you would say ¿Qué extrañas de tu país? Answers tend towards food, weather and specific people rather than anything abstract.
¿Hablas otros idiomas? (Do you speak other languages?)
Why ask it
A better route into language than asking how good their English is, which invites an apology. In much of Spain and Latin America the answer involves a regional or indigenous language spoken at home, which is usually the more interesting half.
¿Qué te habría gustado estudiar? (What would you have liked to study?)
Why ask it
The conditional perfect looks intimidating and is worth having as a set phrase, because it unlocks the whole category of paths not taken. People answer it more freely than a question about regret, since the framing keeps it hypothetical.
¿Qué cambiarías de tu trabajo? (What would you change about your job?)
Why ask it
More productive than asking whether they like their work, which gets a shrug. Cambiarías in the conditional invites specifics, and the specifics tell you about hours, pay and management without you having asked about any of them directly.
¿Qué crees que la gente entiende mal sobre este país? (What do you think people get wrong about this country?)
Why ask it
Save it until the conversation is comfortable, because it invites a genuine opinion. Answers frequently correct something you were about to say, which is the point: it is cheaper to be corrected in the abstract than after you have said the wrong thing.
¿Qué error repito cuando hablo español? (Which mistake do I keep making when I speak Spanish?)
Why ask it
The single most useful question a learner can ask, and almost nobody does. Native speakers politely absorb the same error for months; asking for one repeated mistake, rather than general feedback, gets you something specific enough to fix.
Using these questions in conversation
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Tú, usted and getting the register right
- Default to usted with anyone older than you, anyone serving you in an official capacity, and anyone who addresses you that way first. Being slightly too formal costs nothing; being too familiar can land badly.
- In Spain, expect a quick switch to tú, often prompted by the other person. In Colombia, Costa Rica and parts of the Andes, usted is used far more widely, including with people you know well.
- Argentina, Uruguay and much of Central America use vos in place of tú, with its own verb forms. You do not have to produce it, but recognising it prevents confusion.
- In Spain the plural informal vosotros is normal; in Latin America ustedes covers both formal and informal plural. Pick the one that matches where you are and stay consistent.
- If in doubt, ask. ¿Nos tuteamos? or ¿Te puedo tutear? resolves it in three words and is taken as courtesy.
Forming questions without English habits
- Spanish has no auxiliary do. Word order plus rising intonation is the whole question: ¿Trabajas aquí? rather than any attempt to translate do you.
- Keep the opening upside-down question mark when you write. Its absence is the clearest sign of text written by a learner.
- Cómo es asks what something is like, qué es asks for a definition, and confusing the two is the most common source of a puzzled expression.
- Estar for temporary states and conditions, ser for identity and permanent qualities: ¿Cómo estás? and ¿Cómo eres? are entirely different questions.
- Add por favor and a greeting before a question directed at a stranger. A bare question, even a grammatical one, reads as abrupt in most Spanish-speaking settings.
When you do not understand the answer
Ask for a repeat, not a translation
¿Cómo? on its own is normal and not rude. ¿Me lo puedes repetir? asks for the same sentence again, which is usually all you need, and it keeps the conversation in Spanish.
Ask about one word
¿Qué quiere decir...? isolates the word that stopped you instead of throwing away the whole sentence. Speakers are far better at explaining one word than at rephrasing a paragraph.
Do not fake comprehension
Nodding through an answer you missed leads to agreeing to something, or to a follow-up question you cannot handle. Say No te he entendido and try again.
Let a mistake stand
Stopping to correct your own grammar mid-sentence breaks the other person's attention. Finish the thought, then ask later how you should have said it.
Wording to watch by country
- Coger is an everyday verb for taking or catching in Spain and is crude in Argentina, Mexico and much of the region. Use tomar for taking a bus or a taxi and you are safe everywhere.
- Everyday nouns shift: a car is coche in Spain and carro or auto elsewhere; a bus can be autobús, camión, guagua, colectivo or micro depending where you stand.
- For missing something or someone, echar de menos is Spain and extrañar is most of Latin America. Both are understood; only one sounds local.
- Terms for nationality, race and body shape carry different weight in different countries and are best left for the other person to introduce.
- Ahora and ya do not reliably mean now. Confirm times and arrangements with a clock reference rather than assuming.
Questions to leave out with someone new
- Immigration status, papers or how someone came to be in the country. It is not small talk anywhere.
- Salary and rent. Money comes up readily once you know people, and not before.
- Politics and recent conflict, particularly in countries where a period of violence is inside living memory. Wait for them to raise it.
- Religion beyond noting a holiday or a local festival.
- Whether someone is married or has children, phrased as an expectation. ¿Tienes hermanos? gets you into family territory without implying that anything is missing.