Questions to Ask Someone in Spanish
Twenty questions in Spanish for learners at roughly A2 to B1, ordered from greetings to real conversation. Each one notes the grammar it drills and the mistake learners usually make with it.
The questions
Open any question for the note
¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)
Why ask it
Use estás with a friend and está with a stranger, a customer, or anyone much older. Getting that choice wrong is the most common way a learner sounds either cold or overfamiliar in the first three seconds.
¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?)
Why ask it
Literally "how do you call yourself," so the verb is reflexive: me llamo, not soy llamado. Answering with just your name is normal and complete.
¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?)
Why ask it
Origin takes ser, not estar. Note that many people answer with a city rather than a country, so have ¿y de qué parte? ready as a follow-up.
¿Y tú? (And you?)
Why ask it
Two words that double the length of any conversation. Learners tend to answer a question and stop, which leaves the other person doing all the work of keeping it going.
¿Puedes hablar más despacio, por favor? (Can you speak more slowly, please?)
Why ask it
Worth memorising before any of the content questions, because comprehension collapses at normal speed long before your grammar does. Most people slow down immediately and stay slower.
¿Cómo se dice esto en español? (How do you say this in Spanish?)
Why ask it
The impersonal se is doing the work here, and it saves you from stopping the conversation to reach for your phone. Point at the thing rather than describing it.
¿Me corriges si me equivoco? (Will you correct me if I make a mistake?)
Why ask it
Asking permission changes how people talk to you: without it most native speakers politely let errors pass. Equivocarse is reflexive, which is exactly the sort of thing you want corrected.
¿A qué te dedicas? (What do you do for a living?)
Why ask it
Sounds far more natural than ¿cuál es tu trabajo?, which reads like a form. Dedicarse takes a, so the a at the front is not optional.
¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aquí? (How long have you been here?)
Why ask it
Spanish uses llevar plus a time expression where English uses a perfect tense, so llevo dos años, not he estado dos años. This construction has no English shape to lean on and needs drilling.
¿Tienes hermanos? (Do you have any siblings?)
Why ask it
Hermanos covers brothers and sisters together, so there is no need to say hermanos o hermanas. Notice that no indefinite article appears before the noun.
¿Qué te gusta hacer los fines de semana? (What do you like doing at weekends?)
Why ask it
Gustar takes an indirect object, so the thing liked is the subject: me gusta leer, me gustan los libros. The plural los fines de semana is what makes it habitual rather than about one weekend.
¿Qué música escuchas? (What music do you listen to?)
Why ask it
Escuchar needs no preposition, unlike the English "listen to," and adding a is a giveaway translation error. Useful because the answer usually gives you artists to look up afterwards.
¿Qué plato de tu país me recomiendas? (What dish from your country do you recommend?)
Why ask it
Drills the indirect object pronoun me in front of the verb, and the answer gives you food vocabulary you will actually use. Better than asking about favourite food, which gets a one-word reply.
¿Adónde te gustaría viajar? (Where would you like to travel?)
Why ask it
Adónde with movement, not dónde, and gustaría is the conditional that softens everything in Spanish. Expect a longer answer than the present tense version would get.
¿Cómo fue tu día? (How was your day?)
Why ask it
Fue is the preterite of ser, irregular and worth having automatic. If the day is still going, ¿cómo va tu día? is the better version.
¿Qué es lo que más te gusta de vivir aquí? (What do you like most about living here?)
Why ask it
The lo que más structure is everywhere in spoken Spanish and rarely taught early. De vivir keeps the infinitive after the preposition, where English would use a gerund.
¿Qué extrañas de tu país? (What do you miss about your country?)
Why ask it
Extrañar is standard across Latin America; in Spain you would say ¿qué echas de menos? Using the wrong one is understood but instantly marks where you learned your Spanish.
¿Cómo era tu ciudad cuando eras pequeño? (What was your town like when you were small?)
Why ask it
Two imperfects in one sentence, which is the tense learners avoid and native speakers use constantly for description and childhood. Match pequeña if you are speaking to a woman.
¿Qué te gustaría hacer en los próximos años? (What would you like to do in the next few years?)
Why ask it
Keeps you in the conditional and out of the subjunctive, so it is a safe way to reach a real topic at intermediate level. Answers often introduce the future tense for you to copy.
¿Qué consejo le darías a alguien que está aprendiendo español? (What advice would you give someone learning Spanish?)
Why ask it
Ends the conversation by making them the expert, which most people enjoy. Note the redundant le alongside a alguien: Spanish doubles the pronoun where English would not.
How to use these questions
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Using these in a real conversation
Decide on tú or usted before you open your mouth
It changes every verb ending in the conversation. Default to usted with strangers, older people, and anyone serving you, and switch when they switch or when they invite you to.
Learn the rescue phrases first
¿Puedes repetir?, más despacio, no entendí, and ¿cómo se dice? matter more than any content question. They keep a conversation alive when comprehension fails, which it will.
Ask five questions, not twenty
Running a list turns a conversation into an exam for both of you. Pick a few, then follow whatever the other person actually said.
Repeat their answer back
Saying "ah, llevas tres años aquí" checks your comprehension, gives them a chance to correct you, and drills the structure in the same breath.
Regional differences worth knowing
- Vosotros is used for informal plural you in Spain; most of Latin America uses ustedes for everyone.
- In Argentina and Uruguay, and parts of Central America, vos replaces tú, with its own verb endings: vos tenés rather than tú tienes.
- Extrañar in Latin America, echar de menos in Spain, for missing someone or something.
- Food, transport, and clothing vocabulary vary the most between countries, so ask what a word is called locally rather than assuming your textbook version travels.
Common mistakes
Translating word for word
Estoy 30 años, tengo calor as I am hot, and adding to after escuchar are all English structures wearing Spanish words. Learn the phrase, not the mapping.
Answering in one word
Sí and no end conversations. Add a reason, an example, or ¿y tú? and the other person will carry it from there.
Apologising for your Spanish repeatedly
Once is fine. After that it shifts the conversation onto your anxiety and away from anything you were going to talk about.
Switching to English at the first difficulty
If you both have some English, the conversation will drift there permanently. Say up front that you would like to stay in Spanish.