1.2 Questions in other languages
In French yes/no questions are formed from the verb by inverting the subject and verb (or auxiliary verb):
Declarative | Translation | Interrogative |
Vous aimez Londres. | You like London. | Aimez-vous Londres? |
Il veut apprendre l’anglais. | He wants to learn English. | Veut-il apprendre l’anglais? |
In Spanish the verb usually appears without a pronoun: I eat = como (see Week 3). This means there is no way to swap the order of the subject and the verb. For this reason, the main way of forming a yes/no question from a declarative in Spanish is simply to ask it with rising (questioning) intonation:
Declarative | Translation | Interrogative |
Tiene dos casas. | She has two houses. | Tiene dos casas? |
Quiere aprender el inglés. | He wants to learn English. | Quiere aprender el inglés? |