En Inglés, there are 5 interrogatives known widely, especially among us word geeks, as the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where, and Why.  These have counterparts, of course, in Español, but none of them begin with Ws at all.  (There’s a reason for that, but I’ll save it for later.)  Here are the English words alongside their Spanish counterparts:

• Who:  Quién
• What:  Qué
• When:  Cuándo
• Where:  Dónde
• Why:  Por qué
  and…
• How:  Cómo (for those oddballs who like to throw it into the mix)

It’s important to note the accented vowels within a few of those.  For example, the words “qué” and “que” are two totally different rascals!  The former, as explained above, means “what”, but the latter — the version with the unaccented “e” — means “that” (i.e., “the one that got away”).  The other use of “that” is another word in Español altogether, and we’ll get to that another time. 

Más Lecciones

En lección 2.3 of Rocket Spanish Premium (i.e., Level 1), I learned the few interrogatives I had not yet encountered in the preceding dozen or so lessons — quién, cuándo, and por qué.  Amy and Mauricio did another fine job role-playing, pretending that Mauricio is a famous música latina star who would be performing on the weekend.  Amy asked him questions about when (cuándo) the concert is taking place and who (quién) is selling the tickets for it.  Those two — they’re always up to something.  ¡Ay, caramba!

I’m beginning to get more enthused with each lesson.  Admittedly, I’m going more slowly than I’d intended to (2-3 lessons per week) and far more slowly than Rocket Spanish prescribes (1 lesson per day).  However, I am in my early 50s (chronologically and physiologically, anyway), work a full time job (for now), and have more responsibilities than when I was 20-ish.  (Those are all excuses, I realize, but I’m sticking with them until I get motivated enough to be a rock star at this.)

Getting back to enthusiasm, though, having a look ahead to some of the future lessons in more advanced modules, as well as delving into the 3 e-books I’ve discovered so far, have caused me to realize that Mr. Woods’ assertions about this course are well-founded — that it can provide more than a simple, conversational understanding of this beautiful language (este idioma bella).  For example, in the beginner-level book, Mauricio explains what I have recently pondered — why the 3 “letters” (I called characters) were dropped officially from the alphabet.  He didn’t really explain cómo o a quiénes (how, or by whom), though, so I’m still a little perplexed on that front.

Who’s who?  (Not always.)

The pronoun quién, I learned, via studying the matter a bit, is used only when in the interrogative, as in, “Who can show Joaquin the way to Monterrey?”  When the accent is dropped from the e (quien), it is used in the sense, “His sister is the one who can direct him to Monterrey.  She’s been there many times.”  Now, I could head to SpanishDict.com and translate those for you, but I’m going to let you do it yourself, just for exercise!  (You’re welcome.)

Those pesky accents!  They can change qué (what) to que (that), cómo (how) to como (like), sí (yes) to si (if), ¡y más!  It’s an unusual convention for us English speakers.  There’s not usually all that much of a logical pattern to it.  At least, none that I can discern just yet.  If there does turn out to be a pattern, I shall at once be both excited to learn it and irritated with myself for not catching it sooner.  Patterns are usually my forte, so it’s a true badge of shame for me when one escapes my attention.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week’s post.  Just thought I’d share a little progress.  It’s just now 2016 as I click the Publish button on this post, so Próspero Año Nuevo, todas!  I’ll do my best to be more regular this year.

P.S.

Oh, and I promised to tell you why none of the 5 Ws of Inglés are Ws in Español.  The letter W (pronounced in Español “doh-ble-beh”) is actually never used for the spelling of palabras españolas (Spanish words) but only to spell words from other languages (e.g., Inglés) that use it natively, such as “Washington”.  How forward-thinking to include a letter from other languages’ alphabet in your own, just in case!

¡Hasta luego!