Spanish speakers: question about usage of cuál and qué...(please read the question detail)?

Question

First off, I do know the meanings of each word. I'm just always a little confused about when to use cuál and not qué in a question and vice versa. Do you have any rules to help me remember? Because it's really not just a translation of when you would use "which" or "what" in English...unless I've been using "which" and "what" wrong my whole life.

For example, when learning Spanish, they tell us that "cuál" is for when you have a choice, when there are a fixed set of options. However, you would say "¿De qué parte de España eres?" and not "¿De cuál parte eres?" so the rule doesn't seem to hold... it seems that there are only a fixed amount of parts of Spain, bue you don't say cuál...

This is something that still confuses me, and I'm pretty sure that most of the times I have ever used cuál, I've been wrong :)

Also, again, I do know the meanings of each in English, but thanks.

I think maybe some examples would help. For the following sentences, my first instinct is to use cuál:

¿cuál es tu película favorita?
¿cuál tipo de ensalada quieres?
¿cuál país tiene la mayor población?

Can you tell me if any of those are right and if so, why or why not?

Gracias

PS-- That last example should have read ¿cuál país tiene la población más grande?

Doesn't really matter much, but I like to fix my mistakes :)

Answer 1

Actually your rule is quite good, though it can be improved, and it does have some exceptions.

To begin with, let's see your example. As a matter of fact, there is practically always a fixed set of options. You hardly ever have to choose from an endless number of options, so the number is always limited, unless the question was "What's your favourite number?" which curiously is asked with "cuál", not with "qué".

Anyway, what you have to consider is if you are actually offering a limited set of options, or if the question is more open, and your mind does not really register all possible options. When you ask "¿De qué parte de España eres?" you are not actually memorising every single part of Spain. You're making an open question to which not all possible answers are known to you. You don't know every single town in Spain. So the answer may be the name of a place you didn't even know about.

On the other hand, if you're shown a limited number of options to choose from, and you cannot possibly be surprised with the answer, you're more likely to use "cuál" in your question. This happens for example if you're asked this: "Spain is divided into XX provinces. Which one are you from?". Here you'd use "cuál": "España está dividida en XX provincias. ¿Tú de cuál eres?" (BTW, I don't remember the exact number, that's why I use X's).

In other words, it's not the amount of possible options what matters, but the subjective perception that you do or don't know all possible answers you can expect.

But this does have an exception. Usually questions about your identity will use "cuál" instead of "qué" even though you may expect practically any answer. "What's your name?" translates as "¿Cuál es tu nombre?" even though you will never be able to know any possible answer to this question.

Answer 2

This is a fabulous question, and one that I think the answers will be somewhat disappointing for.

I believe that the cuál/qué choice is very much associated with each particular question, and that it's not always the reflection of a general rule.

For example, Spanish speakers always say,
¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono?
and not usually
¿Qué es tu número de teléfono?
I have heard this explained as how, even though there are many numbers available in the telephone system, there is a fixed number so it's technically a closed choice. However, it's harder to make the closed-choice explanation for
¿Cuál es tu nombre?
and never
¿Qué es tu nombre?
even though cúal is the one that people actually say. (I think that people might explain this one by saying that, back in the day, people only got given names that were names of saints, and there was therefore a fixed set of names. Nowadays, this obviously isn't true, so the "we do it because that's what we do" is a better explanation.)

In other words, I believe that, aside from the closed-choice/open-choice issue, it might just come down to the fact that certain questions always use certain question words, and people use those words because that's the word that's used in that question. I hope this makes sense.

If what I've said is true, then, your best bet is simply to remember the way that certain common questions are phrased, and then use the closed-choice/open-choice distinction for any novel questions.

(As a syntactician, something tells me that this question might be about scope, but, unfortunately, I'm not an expert on scope. Perhaps you are acquainted with some linguist who knows about semantics who might help you to tease apart that issue, if my suspicion is correct. However, at this point, you might not actually want to deal with the deep linguistics explanation... they can seem pretty esoteric to those who haven't yet been appropriately brainwashed, I mean trained, in linguistics :) .)

Answer 3

Let me start with the three sentences
Cual es tu pelicula Favorita? = right
The third sentence written like it is, is wrong, ought to be
Que pais tiene la mayor poblacion? , but you can say:
Cual es el pais con la mayor poblacion?, y
Que tipo de ensalada prefieres?, but you can also say:
Cual es el tipo de ensalada QUE prefieres?
You can see that "cual" works as a relative pronoun and "que"as an adjetive. The word I wrote with capitals is also a pronoun .
The same as in English is difficult to say if a word is a conjuction or relative pronoun, or adjective.

Answer 4

IWell I am from Spain, I know Castillian and Spanish is different in every country where Spanish is spoken. In general the word "que":

It is for exclamation statements or interrogative ones as in questions. It has the functions of nominating with or without preposition.

Subject: Que ha ocurrido? (what has happened?
Direct Complement: Que me haz dicho? what have you said to me?

Atributes: What is that? que es eso?
supplement: de que me hablas? what are you talking about?

Indirect complement: A que dedica el tiempo libre? what do you spend yr spare time on?

circumstancial object: por que haces eso? why do you do that?

check this site, though its in castillian
http://www.elcastellano.org/que.html

I must say that though I am a professional translator I dont remember all the names of rules for me to explain it all here. I know how to use the languages properly and how to write and did go through a lot of grammar etc but that was years ago. NOw it just comes in fluently into my speech or writing.

But you do have a very good question. I will try to answer it when I can put into words what I know by practice too.

Answer 5

well I don't know if there's a rule for the use of those, but
here are some examples that may help you a little
you use " que" when is something in especific like this
¿de que parte eres?
¿de que esta hecho?
¿de que es eso?
and " cual" for personal questions like this ones:
¿cual es tu nombre?
¿cual es tu nacionalidad?
¿cual es tu numero telefonico? etc
if there's anything I can do to help you just write
my email is [e-mail]

Answer 6

ekk, i donno what to tell u but i've been speaking spanish since i started talking and i mean i was thinking it over and u can pretty much use either or if aking a question regarding two things ( or more) but u can't use cual when asking like 'what happend' cuz it would be like saying 'which one happen' cuz to me cual translates to which one. i was reading ur sample question and ur kinda right kinda wrong. one can say 'de A ( u missed that) cual parte eres. ' ur just asking the question different that translates to form what part of spain are u from..........i donno i hope i'm not confusing u. the trick is u kinda can tell when u say something and it sounds funny or odd, and sometimes missing out a single word can throw u off..................as in 'de a cual'

Answer 7

Cual means which
Que means What

For example Cual pelicula quieres ver? Which movie do u want to see?
Cual color te gusta mas? Which color do u like the most?

Que hora es? What time is it?
Que dijo? what did he/she say?

Answer 8

Hey, I'm dominican
for the questions you put down
they are completely right so your instinct is good
I think it's about it, I used to get confuse when translating to english... so speaking, and speaking, you'll get to know when is what.... that's how i did, a little
i don't think there are any special rules, just speaking

Answer 9

reading is way better the book helps to keep u thinking and you also get more detail in what people are thinking and you get more imagination

Answer 10

Reading the booklet instead of viewing the movie is the ultimate way to see what the writer planned. Reading uses your creativeness, hones your reading skills, and can improve your vocabulary