Coffee Break Spanish - Spanish question words - With or without an accent? | CBS Show 2.01

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

We're back with Season 2 of the Coffee Break Spanish Show! In this podcast series we help you take your intermediate Spanish to the next level, one coffee break at a time. In this 10-episode series we cover a range of topics to help you deepen your understanding of tricky grammar, broaden your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation. You'll sound like a native speaker in no time!In the first episode of our second season we are talking about the upside down question mark and where to place it in a sentence. Join Concha and Mark as they discuss when to put the accent on the question words and how the meaning of a sentence can change if the question word doesn't have an accent.Prefer to watch these lessons? You can do exactly that for free on Coffee Break TV, and download the episodes to your device so you can access them on the go. Or, you can head to our Coffee Break Spanish YouTube channel to access the video version of each podcast episode there. Remember to subscribe to our channel so that you don’t miss an episode.That's not all... each episode of the Show is accompanied by a blog article to increase your understanding of the topics covered.➡️ Click the link to access the blog article and worksheet that accompany this lesson: https://ow.ly/3TPF50S1Tf4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome back to the Coffee Break Spanish Show. I'm Mark. And I'm Concha. What, Concha? Very good, Mark. And you, what are? Super content to be back in the studio

conto. That's. For another time of the Coffee Break Spanish show. Yes, I also am super-emocionate. So this is a weekly podcast, and you can listen to the episodes wherever you get your podcast, but don't forget to subscribe.

You can subscribe on any of the podcast platforms, and if you're watching our video version, because there's a video version of this, then you can subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Perfecto. So what are we going to talk about today, Mark? Good question. Because today we are going to be looking at question words.

Exactly. We are going to be looking at question words and when to use the accent, when to not use the accent, all of that. All that kind of thing. And it is quite a tricky question, quite a tricky topic for our learners, I think. Shall we get started? Yeah, let's go for it. Empecemos. Okay.

So first, there's something that we need. need to take into account and is that we are not going to be looking at every single question word. Right. Because we are going to be looking at a few just now. And then you'll have the rest in the blog article. So make sure that you read that one. Because it's also a very visual topic.

So for you to understand really where to place the accent and everything. So it's good to read the blog article after. But for now, just listen out and see how much you can get. Exactly. we'll mention that blog article again at the end to give you the link and so on. But for now, let's just focus on these question words. Yes, yes. Okay, so let's start with the main ones that we use, okay,

and the ones that we are already familiar with. The first one is como. Como, literally means how. Exactly. Can you give me a question with Como, Mark? Como de Jemes? Okay, so that Como has an accent, okay? And that is because this como is within a question.

Yeah. So every time we have a word like como and it's in a question, we have an accent. In this case, in the O in the first O, come. Como. And the same applies to where. Exactly. Which means where. For example, where is the bibliotheca?

Sure. For example, where is the library? Ah, is very close to here. No, you're okay. So where is the library. So where as a question, where, D-O, accent, N-D-E. That is, yes. And also, for example, a when.

When is your birthday? The 16th december. I'll remember that. So, when, a question, meaning when, and there's an accent there too. Exactly. On the A, when. When. Okay.

What about K? Yeah, that one also has an accent when it's within a question. For example, what are you doing just now? Now, with K, we see K in many situations, sometimes with an accent, sometimes without an accent. But of course, when it's used as a question in a question, then you've got that ke with the accent. Very straightforward. Exactly.

Now, Conta, there's something else we need to think about when we're talking about questions in Spanish. And I think for learners, especially early on in the language learning journey of Spanish, it's quite a surprise. Do you know what I'm thinking about? I think you're talking about the opening question mark. Absolutely.

An upside down question mark at the beginning. What's that all about? Yeah. So we need that opening question. question mark that upside down one, like you said, because the structure of the sentence doesn't change in Spanish. So when you say, for example, where do you live? In Spanish, we say don't bebes. So if you didn't put the question mark at the beginning, we wouldn't know that this is a question. Yeah, because it could mean where you live, there's a farm nearby or something like that.

Yeah. Of course, in that situation, it wouldn't have an accent. Not always, but sometimes, and we'll talk about this in a minute. Sometimes they put that. Yeah. So we put that question, the upside down question mark in before the question part of the sentence. Yes. So it really depends. For example, if you say, me puldes deciar, don't stay your casa. In that case, the question will go right before the question word. Right before the don't. Right. And this is where, as we said earlier, It will really help if you have a look at the blog article that accompanies this episode because it will help you see where all the punctuation is going in this sentence. But if you imagine for the moment, we've got,

me, me, colon, dos pointos, where is that to casa? So the upside and question mark in that situation would come straight before the where the don't. Yes, yes. Me can't say, colon, upside in question mark, where is that your casa? Exactly.

Can you tell me where your house is? would a comma work in the same way? Yes, exactly. Any kind of punctuation. So me you can say comma, upside in question mark, where's that your casa? Exactly. Okay.

But if we just wrote out in one sentence without any punctuation, me can't say where is that your casa? In that case, we would put the opening question mark right at the beginning of the sentence. So right before the me. Yeah. Me you can say, in a sense, the question there is whether or not you can tell me.

Yeah. as opposed to where your houses. Exactly. Me, please say where your house is. Yeah. Okay, let us now talk about a situation. We've covered some question words.

We've talked about the accents that go on them and also talked about upside down question marks. But what about situations where we don't put the accent or we do put the accent when there's a doubt to whether we put the accent? Yeah. So when we don't have any question marks whatsoever is when it gets confusing. So in that case, we need to think about if you're wondering about something.

For example, if I say, me preguunto, where Maria is. Yeah. Because I am wondering, there's the idea of, in my head, I'm asking,

where is Maria? Exactly. Yeah. So in that case, we would use an accent there. So I think what we're going to do here, just to get a little bit of practice in and especially because our listeners

are maybe, I don't know, walking the dog or are at the gym or in the car, and you've not done anything yet while you're listening to this episode. So it's time to do some, work. We're going to repeat these sentences after Concha. So can you give us a sentence and pause in such a way so that we remember whether there's

a question mark, whether there's an accent and so on. Okay, perfect. So I'll say the sentence. Then I'll give you some time to repeat. Okay. Okay. So my sentence would be, no se como lo does it. No see how he does it.

So this literally means I don't know how he does it. Exactly. So the question I'm wondering is, how does he do it? Yeah. How does he make those beautiful cakes? Or how does he do that wonderful art? Yes. Whatever it is.

Yeah. So even if it's a rhetorical question in your head, you're asking yourself a question. So we do have an accent there. Yeah. Do we have a question, Mark? No. Because it's, I don't know how he does it. I'm not asking, can you tell me how he does it?

Ha. Okay. So I don't know how he does it. How has our accent? Como lo a fe. That is, very well. let's have another one again if you leave some space after what you after the sentence and then our listeners can repeat okay absolutely no when will be to get martha he said he was to get at last 12 oh it's quite long it's quite long i split it up into two yeah exactly yeah

i'll repeat the first part no see when will be to get martha Dijo That's Okay, let's split it up then No se Wheno va to get Marta

So I don't know when Martha is going to arrive I'm sitting here thinking where's Marta got to You know When is she going to arrive

I'm asking myself a question So there should be an accent on the Wheno Exactly And then the second part of the

sentence was So we said Dijo that I'm going to get to 12

Dio She said, preterate tense, that Iva, she was going to imperfect, to get at last 12. She was going to arrive at 12 o'clock. Are you a punctual person, Conce? Unfortunately, no. I think it's in my Spanish nature. Yeah.

So if you said you were going to arrive at 12 o'clock, what kind of time would you aim for? I would give it another half hour, maybe, roughly an hour. So I don't know why this person is wondering. Martha is going to arrive late anyway. I'm glad you said that. I'm glad you said that. Let's look at one more example here.

Okay. Veremos, what Pasa. Interesting. Interesting. So, we'll see what happens. Exactly.

We will see what happens. Okay. So I guess at that point, are we sitting there thinking, what's going to happen? Is there a question in our heads? Yeah, there's a question in our heads. Yeah.

But of course, there's no question marks, because it's not a question. Exactly. But we will see what happens. Beremes. Pasa. Exactly. And this one is very interesting because if you say,

Veremos Kappa without the accent, then you're not wondering. Then you will see what's going to happen. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So that is the difference there. We'll see what happens. Yeah.

Ah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Let's look at a couple of situations where there is no accent. And then we'll put me and our listeners to the test. How does that sound? Perfect.

Perfect to me. Ready? Uh-huh. Okay, This chaquetta is like the when it was so again we have that

comma there. So say it again, nice and slowly so our lessons can repeat. This jacket is like the time when it was a little. Okay, so

this jacket, is like the one I had, is like the one I had, the that was little. So there's, they're that como, it's not a question word. Exactly.

It means like in a sense. I suppose we could it be asking, what was the jacket like I had when I was a child? But that's not the question here. Yeah, you're comparing two jackets that existed. You know what they looked like. Exactly. Yeah, so there is no question.

No wondering. Okay. Let's try another one. Okay. Estoy don't de me didiste. Right. This is a good example. Okay.

Let's hear it one more time. Estoy don't where me didstey. I'm where you're saying, I am where you told me to be in a sense. So I'm not asking where did you tell me to be. No.

I'm just using the word where as a relative pronoun basically here. I'm where you told me to be. No, no accent. Exactly. Are we ready for a test? We are ready for a test. So what we're going to do now

is Concha is going to give us a sentence. I'm going to play this button here. I'm going to press a button and then we'll have some music for 10 seconds to give us all some time to think about it and then we'll decide accent or no accent. We're ready to play an accent or no accent? Yes, accent or no accent.

Let's go for it. Let's go for it. That is the professor. So that is the teacher that I told you about. There's no question. No question. Therefore, there's no accent.

Very well. Okay. Punto for Mark. Much a great. Okay. Let's do one more. Okay. Dime,

when aterisa your and I'm a recogertre. Okay. So it's when this time we're thinking about. it. Yes.

10 seconds. Okay. Tiempo. So, Dime when aterisa your flight arrives,

when it lands. And I will come and pick you up. So tell me when it arrives. I think I'm thinking when does the flight

arrive there. So I'm going to say there is an accent. Correct. Very well. Yes. Exactly. If there is the idea

of wondering, If I don't know the information that I'm asking for, then there's going to be an accent. There's going to be an accent. And so the accent is there because of the question. And even though there's not a question mark in these situations, it's still a kind of reported question. So there we have it. We've looked at when to use the accents on the question words. We've looked at when not to use the accents on the question words.

And of course, those upside down question marks and where to place them. Yeah. Now you know how to use them. Well, yeah. We hope that you have enjoyed this lesson. Of course, there are more examples, more question words, and more information in our article. And you'll find the link in the description of this podcast episode to access all of that. Exactly.

And of course, Mark, if our listeners want to learn more Spanish, they can always sign up for the free lessons, visiting coffeebreaklanguages.com slash Spanish. And what is what they're going to learn with these mini lessons. Ah, nice use of that question word. That is. Well, with these mini lessons, they're going to just have little pieces of information about Spanish grammar, culture, a little bit of everything. A little bit of everything. A bit of everything. So you can look out for those in your inbox soon.

Just go to coffeebreaklinglinguages.com slash Spanish, as Concha said. Well, that's all right. Well, yeah. Enchanted to have been here. And, equally, our first episode of the new season. We hope you've enjoyed it. We'll see you again soon. Much thanks.

And until the next. Happy coffee breaking. Adios. You have been listening to a conference. Coffee Break Languages production for the Radiolingo network. Copyright 2024, Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright, 2024, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved.