Accent Marks and Indirect Questions in Spanish

For beginning Spanish students, the rule theyre taught about orthographic accents may seem straightforward: Words such as quà © (what) and cuà ¡ntos (how many) have accents on them when theyre used in questions but dont otherwise. But the use of such accents marks in reality is a bit more complicated, as the accent mark is retained in some types of statements. For example, heres one sentence you might see: El Banco Central no aclarà ³ cuà ¡ntos dà ³lares vendià ³. (The Central Bank did not make clear how many dollars it sold.) Accents in Indirect Questions It is true that various words have orthographic accents—accent marks that affect the meanings of words but not the pronunciation—when they are parts of questions. The twist to the rule that questions can be part of statement, a statement that ends in a period, rather than as part of a question, a sentence that begins and ends in question marks. Such questions are known as indirect questions. For example, the sample sentence above indirectly asks the question of how many dollars were sold, but it doesnt do so directly. Some indirect questions are obvious, as in this sentence: Quisiera saber dà ³nde puedo encontrar algà ºn programa para convertir archivos de MP3. (I would like to know where I can find a program for converting MP3 files.) Often, sentences that begin in phrases such as quiero saber (I want to know) or no saber (I dont know) are indirect questions. But sometimes the indirect questions are more subtle. Here are some more examples of indirect questions that use orthographic accents: No sà © dà ³nde està ¡. (I dont know where he is.)Saben quà © va a pasar. (They know what is going to happen.)Ella me dijo por quà © se cambià ³ su nombre. (She told me why she changed her name.)Es difà ­cil decir exactamente cuà ¡ntos cadà ¡veres habà ­a. (Its difficult to say exactly how many corpses there were.)La comisià ³n va a investigar quià ©n es el responsable. (The commission will investigate who is the one responsible.) Words That Change Form in Questions These are the words that require the orthographic accent in questions, whether they are direct or indirect: adà ³nde (where to, where)cà ³mo (how)cuà ¡l (which, what)cuà ¡ndo (when)cuà ¡nto, cuà ¡ntos (how much, how many)dà ³nde (where)para quà © (what for, why)por quà © (why)quà © (what, which)quià ©n (who) These are all known as interrogative words and include pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Sometimes, especially with quà ©, the accent is needed to clarify the meaning of the word that is being used, and the meaning changes without the accent. Note the difference between these two sentences: Sà © que va a comer. (I know that he is going to eat. Que here functions as a relative pronoun.)Sà © quà © va a comer. (I know what he is going to eat. Quà © here is an interrogative pronoun.) Similarly, when cà ³mo is functioning as a question word, it usually is translated as how. But in statements that arent indirect questions, it is translated as as or like. This is one way you can tell whether cà ³mo is being used in an indirect question. Quiero saber cà ³mo se hace. (I want to know how it is done.)Los nià ±os llegaron como una tormenta. (The children arrived like a storm.) Example Sentences Here are each of the interrogative words used as an indirect question: No sabemos adà ³nde vamos. (We dont know where were going.)Me gustarà ­a aprender cà ³mo escribirlo en inglà ©s. (I would like to learn how to write it in English.)No tengo idea cuà ¡l es la receta para la felicidad. (I dont have an idea what the recipe for happiness is.)No me dijo cuà ¡ndo volverà ­a a casa. (She didnt tell me when she would come home.)No me importa cuà ¡nto dinero tengas. (It doesnt matter to me how much money you have.)Es difà ­cil decir dà ³nde estamos en comparacià ³n con los otros. (Its difficult to say where we are compared with the others.)No comprendo para quà © sirve el cinismo. (I dont know what the purpose of cynicism is.)No sabà ­amos por quà © esto habà ­a sucedido. (We dont know why this has happened.)Quiero entender quà © me està ¡ ocurriendo. (I want to understand what is happening to me.) Key Takeaways Interrogative words in Spanish require accent marks when they are used in both direct and indirect questions.Common interrogative words include dà ³nde (where), cà ³mo (how), and por quà © (why).The unaccented que usually means that, while the accented quà © usually means what.