Questions - Complete Guide for Spanish Speakers

🎯 Why This Matters

Dialogue and communication.

Learning Outcome

Basic communication ability.

🇪🇸 The Challenge

Auxiliary Do/Does/Did. Spanish relies on intonation alone to make questions. English requires grammatical restructuring with auxiliaries.

🇲🇽🇨🇴🇦🇷 Missing auxiliaries

Problem: Spanish makes questions with intonation only

Watch out: Saying 'You like pizza?' instead of 'Do you like pizza?'

✅ Fix: ALWAYS use do/does/did for questions (except with 'be', 'have' as auxiliary, or modals)

🧠 Mental Note: No auxiliary = not a proper English question

❌ 'Where you go?' → ✅ 'Where do you go?'

🇪🇸 Same auxiliary challenge

Problem: Castilian Spanish also uses intonation for questions

Watch out: Forgetting DO/DOES/DID in questions

✅ Fix: Think: AUX-SUBJECT-VERB. Always include the auxiliary!

❌ 'She speaks English?' → ✅ 'Does she speak English?'

🧠 Visual Explanation (The Mental Fix)

The Question Formula

Questions in English need AUXILIARY VERBS: 📐 THE FORMULA: AUX + SUBJECT + VERB WITH 'TO BE' - just invert: - You ARE happy → ARE you happy? WITH OTHER VERBS - add DO/DOES/DID: - You LIKE pizza → DO you LIKE pizza? - He WORKS here → DOES he WORK here? - She WENT home → DID she GO home? ⚠️ CRITICAL RULE: - DO/DOES takes the -s/-es from the verb! - ❌ Does he works? - ✅ Does he work? WH-QUESTIONS: WH + AUX + SUBJECT + VERB - What DO you want? - Where DOES she live?

Aux-Subject-Verb. Does/Did already carries the tense, so verb stays base form!

🗣️ Pronunciation Guide

How Spanish speakers should pronounce this structure:

Do you → D'you

Spanish Habit: Pronouncing 'do you' as two separate words

English Reality: In natural speech, 'do you' becomes 'd'you' /dʒuː/ or /dʒə/

Examples:

Do you want → D'you want /dʒə wɒnt/
Did you go → Didja go /ˈdɪdʒə/
What do you → Whatcha /ˈwɒtʃə/

Practice: In casual speech, blend 'do you' into one sound: 'd'you'

📖 How It Works

ASW (Auxiliary-Subject-Verb) formula.

Learning Strategy

Teacher Recommendation: Teacher strongly recommended

Time Investment: 5 hours

🔑 Signal Words (Memory Anchors)

These words/phrases appear with this structure:

English	Spanish	Example
do/does/did	(auxiliar)	Do you like pizza? Does she work? Did they come?
what	qué	What do you want?
where	dónde	Where does he live?
when	cuándo	When did you arrive?
why	por qué	Why do you think so?

💬 Real Examples

Let's see this structure in action with correct vs incorrect usage:

Example 1: Yes/No questions with do

✅ CORRECT: "Do you speak English?"

🇪🇸 Translation: "¿Hablas inglés?"

❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "You speak English? / Speak you English?"

Why wrong? English needs DO + subject + base verb for questions

🇲🇽 LatAm Trap: Spanish just uses intonation (¿Hablas...?). English NEEDS 'do'!

In very informal speech, rising intonation alone is sometimes used

Example 2: Third person questions

✅ CORRECT: "Does she work here?"

🇪🇸 Translation: "¿Ella trabaja aquí?"

❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "Does she works here?"

Why wrong? DOES already carries the third-person -s. Don't double it!

🇲🇽 LatAm Trap: Very common error: adding -s to both does AND the verb.

Does he WORK (not works). The -s moves to DOES.

Example 3: Past questions

✅ CORRECT: "Did you see the movie?"

🇪🇸 Translation: "¿Viste la película?"

❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "Did you saw the movie?"

Why wrong? DID already shows past tense. Verb returns to base form!

🇲🇽 LatAm Trap: DID + base verb. Not DID + past verb. The tense is in DID.

Did he GO (not went). Did she EAT (not ate).

✏️ Practice Exercises

Ready to test your understanding? Let's practice!

All set? Let's reinforce what you learned.

Start Interactive Exercises

🚀 What to Study Next

More in "Questions"

Tag Questions

Medium