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Formation of yes/no questions and negation

(La formacin de preguntas de s o no, y la negacin)

Statements versus Questions


In spoken and written Spanish, statements are normally formed by placing the subject at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the verb and an object, if any.

rica habla francs.


Questions that require a yes-or-no answer are often formed by placing the subject after the verb, especially when requesting new information.

Habla rica francs? Does rica speak French?

Statements versus Questions


To express disbelief about information already given, maintain the word order for statements, but with rising intonation (called an echo question).

rica habla francs? rica speaks French? (Really?)


In spoken Spanish, all yes-or-no questions are identified by rising intonation at the end of the question, regardless of word order.

Habla rica francs?

Statements versus Questions


A yes-or-no question can also be formed by adding a tag word or phrase at the end of a statement. Tag questions are also used to confirm given information and have rising intonation over the tag itself.

rica habla francs, no?

rica speaks French, doesnt she?


rica habla francs, verdad?

rica speaks French, right?


rica habla francs, no es as?

rica speaks French, isnt that so?

Question Marks and Intonation


(Los signos de interrogacin y la entonacin)
An inverted question mark () is always placed at the beginning of a question word or phrase, and another right-side-up question mark (?) at the end.

Cmo? Pardon? Hows that again? Cmo es tu profesor? What is your professor like?
While in English, word order or the helper verb do normally indicate a question, in Spanish, word order for questions and statements can be identical, and Spanish has no equivalent to the helper verb do. Thus, in written Spanish, the inverted question mark alerts the reader that a question follows.

Juan habla ingls.


Juan habla ingls?

Juan speaks English.


Does Juan speak English?

Question Marks and Intonation


(Los signos de interrogacin y la entonacin)
Again, with yes-or-no questions in spoken Spanish, the speakers intonation is the indicator of the question.

Eres estudiante? Eres estudiante.

Are you a student? You are a student.

With questions that do not require yes or no in the answer, intonation is not an indicator; instead, we listen for the question word at or near the beginning of the phrase.

De dnde es? Es de California.

Where is he from? Hes from California.

Negation
We make a sentence negative in Spanish by simply placing no before the verb.

rica no habla francs.

rica doesnt speak French.


Be careful, though. In Spanish, the no is always before the verb, even when its equivalent (not, etc.) is after the verb in English.

Nosotros no somos de Espaa.

We are not from Spain.

Negation
When we answer a yes-or-no question negatively, the word no followed by a comma also precedes the verb phrase.

Habla rica francs?

No, no habla francs.


The first no simply negates the question. The second no is the equivalent of doesnt.

No, she doesnt speak French.

FIN

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