B1 · Questions and negation
Indirect questions
No question mark, but the accent stays — and «whether» is si.
At a glance
- Remember
- The question mark goes, the accent stays — and «whether» is si.
- Form
- No sé dónde vive.with a question word
- Signal words
- no sé
- dime
- pregunta
- me gustaría saber
- depende de
- Trap
- Wrong:No sé donde está el banco.Right:No sé dónde está el banco.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Spanish.
negation
| with a question word | No sé dónde vive. |
| yes/no | Pregunta si hay entradas. |
| after saber | No sabemos cuándo llega. |
| after preguntar | Me preguntó por qué no fui. |
| after depender | Depende de cómo esté el tiempo. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
No question marks, a full stop at the end.
No sé quién ha llamado.I do not know who has rung.
The accent on the question word stays.
Dime cuánto cuesta.Tell me how much it costs.
«whether» is si, with no accent.
No sé si podré ir.I do not know whether I will be able to come.
The word order stays as in the direct question.
Pregúntale dónde está la estación.Ask him where the station is.
Example sentences
No sé cómo se llama.I do not know what he is called.
Me preguntó si estaba cansada.He asked me whether I was tired.
Quiero saber cuándo empieza.I want to know when it starts.
Depende de si llueve o no.It depends on whether it rains or not.
6 more example sentences
Dime qué necesitas.Tell me what you need.
No recuerdo cuánto pagué.I cannot remember how much I paid.
Pregúntale si viene a la fiesta.Ask him whether he is coming to the party.
Me explicó cómo funcionaba el aparato.He explained to me how the machine worked.
Nadie sabe por qué se fue.Nobody knows why he left.
Depende de cuánto tiempo tengamos.It depends how much time we have.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The accent gets deleted because there is no question mark any more. It is the other way round: the question mark goes, the accent stays. No sé donde would mean «I do not know at the place where» — grammatically something else and meaningless in that sentence.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
A question that hangs off another verb is no longer a question but a report of one: No sé dónde está. So there are no question marks and a full stop at the end. The accent on the question word stays, though — it belongs to the question, not to the punctuation.
A yes-no question is joined with si, without an accent: Pregunta si hay entradas. This si is the same word as the «if» of a condition, and must not be confused with sí.
The word order does not change, which is where English helps: «I don't know where he lives» keeps the subject-verb order too. What English does and Spanish does not is drop the «that» — si can never be left out.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: estar · llamar · haber · poder · ir · empezar · saber · querer