Cómo vs. Qué for How?

Dhruv L.B1Kwiziq community member

Cómo vs. Qué for How?

What is the difference between usage of Cómo and Qué when one is trying to ask questions about 'How'? I have seen both Cómo and Qué used for How? 

Whats the best way to differentiate?

Asked 4 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Dhruv

Cómo is generally used for "how" in questions and qué is generally used for "what" in questions. But there are certain questions that in English are asking literally "How ....? while in Spanish we do it in a different way. For example:

to ask someone's name "What is your name?" we formulate the question differently saying instead "Cómo te llamas?" [lit: How do you call yourself?"] so we use how here, not what.

to ask what something/someone is like, in English "What is it like?", we formulate it this way "¿Cómo es? [lit: how is it?]

to ask about someone's age you say in English "How old are you?" but we say in Spanish "Cuántos años tienes?"[lit: how many years do you have?]

So, there are different contexts where we ask differently to the English way using a different interrogative word. They need to be memorised, I am afraid :))

Saludos

Inma

Cómo vs. Qué for How?

What is the difference between usage of Cómo and Qué when one is trying to ask questions about 'How'? I have seen both Cómo and Qué used for How? 

Whats the best way to differentiate?

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