CUÁL/CUÁLES and QUÉ

In order to help you to decide between ¿QUÉ? and ¿CUÁL? or ¿CUÁLES? I am giving you some criteria you can use to guide your choice:

¿QUÉ?

1. If you are asking for information, in the sense of a definition or the meaning of something:

• What is the St. Jacob’s Way? = ¿Qué es el Camino de Santiago?
• What is a definite article? = ¿Qué es un artículo definido?

2. Or information in general, in an open-ended approach:

• What are you going to do tomorrow? = ¿Qué vas/váis a hacer mañana?

3. It is most often used before nouns:

• Which books do you like? = ¿Qué libros te gustan?
• Which car is yours? = ¿Qué coche es el tuyo?

4. When used without a noun, we use ¿qué? to choose from an heterogeneous group:

• What do we buy? books or music = ¿Qué compramos? libros o música

¿CUÁL?/ CUÁLES

1. If you are asking for information, but it is rather a way to get a noun, or to identify something:

• What is your address? = ¿Cuál es tu dirección?
• What is her phone number? = ¿Cuál es su número de teléfono?

2. If you are expecting an answer which expresses a selection made out of a number of choices or possibilities, you need Cuál es/ Cuáles son:

• Which is your favourite colour? = ¿Cuál es tu color favorito?
• Which are the biggest cities in America? = ¿Cuáles son las ciudades más grandes in America?

NOTE that the implicit or explicit group from which to choose must be homogeneous, that is, of the same kind.

3. If you have already mentioned the thing you are going to ask about:

• There are so many postcards! Which one/s do we buy? = Hay tantas postales, ¿cuál/cuáles compramos?

Now, for a bit of practice click HERE.