Question Words as Subjects

There are other question words that are used a little differently. These question words actually serve as the subject of the question. Here is a list of the question words that can be used as subjects:

The question “Who speaks Italian?” uses the pronoun who as a subject. Just like in English, the Spanish question ¿ Quién habla español? uses the pronoun quién as the subject.

These questions are actually created exactly the same in Spanish and English, but since there are both a singular and plural version of who in Spanish, there is one thing you don't think about in English that you'll have to think about in Spanish. You know that you're supposed to conjugate the verb to go with the subject. When the subject is a question word, the verb is conjugated in either the él/ ella or ellos/ ellas form based on whether the question word is singular or plural.

The singular pronoun, quién, is meant to represent one person, so use the él/ella form of the verb you would use if one person were the subject of the sentence. The plural version of who, quiénes, is meant to represent several people. It will require you to use the ellos/ellas form of the verb with it. When the question words quién and quiénes are used without prepositions, they always will be the subject of the sentence. Here are examples of quién and quiénes as subjects of a sentence:

• ¿ Quiénes aprenden español?

• Who learns Spanish? (assuming that more that one person is learning Spanish.)

• ¿ Quién baila con María?

• Who dances with María? (assuming that only one person is dancing with María)

Notice that when the question word serves as the subject, there is no need to switch the subject and verb. There are a few other question words that can act as the subject of the sentence. Be careful to consider the gender and number of the noun that cuánto represents. For example, if you already established you were talking about water, you could say:

• ¿ Cuánta cae cada verano? ( cuánta is the subject, cae is the verb)

• How much falls each summer? ( how much is the subject, falls is the verb)

The question word cuánta can be used in another type of question. This is simply a yes or no question with the question word placed in front. For example:

• Does Marta eat? ( Marta is the subject, eat is the verb)

• ¿ Come Marta? ( Marta is the subject, come is the verb)

You can simply put the question word “how much” in front of this yes or no question:

• How much does Marta eat?

• ¿ Cuánto come Marta?

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