Let's learn how to ask questions in Spanish

We use questions to gather information and yes/no questions. For the most part questions to gather information start with who, what, where,why,etc. Yes/no questions are used to simply get a yes or a no for an answer
A couple of examples of a yes/no question in Spanish are:

¿Habla ingles? Si, hablo ingles.
No, no hablo ingles.

¿Eres de los Estados Unidos? Si, soy de los Estados Unidos.
No, no soy de los Estados Unidos.

There are many intonations when asking a question using a statement depending of the information requested. Most commonly used is rising the intonation at the end of the question in the following question:

Tienes frio.(statement)
¿Tienes frio?



On the other hand, questions such as the one bellow:

¿Quién está dentro de la casa?= Who is inside de house?

This question begins with an interrogative pronoun quien. This type of sentences that begin with an interrogative pronoun or with interrogative adverbs have an elevated intonation. In other words the intonation begins with a higher pitch at the beginning with quien; but the intonation at the end of the sentence introduces differences: they could end with an ascending intonation, descending intonation or circumflex depending on what we would like to get with the question.
If we are sure that someone has done something but we would like to know who is the person, then the sentence has an imperative manner and its intonation would be in the following manner:

• There is a strong intonation on the first accented syllable of the word.
• Then there is an decline fast and progressive.
• The decline is marked clearly by the final syllable.

If the speaker has a doubt, or would like to address the listener in a courteous manner, the question become gentle by doing the following:

• There is an ascending of the voice in the first syllabus.
• After the first syllabus, the voice descend.
• On the last syllabus, the voice intonation ascend.
  

When we would like to express surprise or finds the act strange, the intonation has the following steps:

• The voice ascend on the first syllabus.
• The voices intonation descend.
• And a circumflex intonation occurs on the last accented syllabus. This means intonation ascends with a quick descend. ( ^)

In Spanish, there may be several ways to ask the same question. Remember than is Spanish there is an inverted question mark (¿=ALT+168 in the numpad)to open the question and at the end it closes with the familiar question mark (?)

¿Alfredo habla ingles? ....................................... Does Alfredo speak English?
¿Habla Alfredo ingles?....................................... Does Alfredo speak English?
¿Habla ingles Alfredo? ....................................... Does Alfredo speak English?

The following questions mean pretty much the same thing: Does Alfredo speak English?

Possible answers would be Yes/No:

Sí, Alfredo habla ingles.
or
No, Alfredo no habla ingles.

Another method of forming questions is to add a tag question to the end of a statement like no or verdad.

Nathan habla español, ¿no? ................................. ...Nathan speaks Spanish, doesn’t he?
Sharon habla español, ¿verdad? ........................... Sharon speaks Spanish, right?

Common words used to introduce other questions are:
¿Dónde? = “Where?”
¿Adónde? = “To where?”

Adónde asks for a destination:
¿Adónde va Pedro? .............................................. Where is Pedro going?
¿Adónde?= To where?

dónde asks for a location:

¿Dónde?=Where?
¿Dónde está la biblioteca? ................................. Where is the library?
¿Dónde está mi coche? ...................................... Where is my car?
¿Dónde está mi carro?.........................................Where is my car?

¿De dónde?=From where?

¿De dónde es Sonia? ..................................... Where is Sonia from?

¿Cómo?= How?
¿Cómo está usted? ............................................ How are you?

¿Cuál?= Which?
¿Cuáles? =Which ones?
¿Cuál es tu nombre? .......................................... What is your name?
¿Cuáles son tus canciones favoritas? ......................... What (Which) are your favorite songs?

¿Cuándo?= When?
¿Cuándo van a ir ustedes? ................................. When are you-all going to go?
¿Cuándo comen ustedes? .................................. When do you-all eat?

¿Cuánto?= How much?
¿Cuánta? = How much?
¿Cuánto dinero gana Alejandro? .......................... How much money does Alejandro earn?
¿Cuánto cuesta la corbata? ................................ How much does the tie cost?

¿Cuántos?=How many?
¿Cuántas?=How many?
¿Cuántas chicas hay en la clase?........How many girls are there in the class?
¿Cuántas muchachas hay en la clase?.... How many girls are there in the class?

¿Qué?=What? Which?
¿Qué es la libertad?....................................... What is liberty?
¿Qué estudias?=.............................................What do you study?
¿Qué estudia Sam? ........................................What does Sam study?

¿De qué?= About what? Of what?
¿De qué material es el lápiz?...........................What is the pencil made of?
¿De qué hablan ustedes? ................................... What are you-all talking about?

¿Quién?= Who?
¿Quiénes? = Who?
¿Quién es Juan José? .......................................... Who is Juan José?
¿Quiénes son esos chicos? ................................. Who are those boys?

¿Quiénes son esos muchachos?= Who are those boys?

¿A quién?= To whom? For whom?
¿A quiénes? = To whom? For whom?
¿A quién buscas? ............................................... For whom are you looking?
¿A quiénes vas a dar tantos libros? .................To whom are you going to give so many books?

¿Con quién?= With whom?
¿Con quiénes?= With whom?
¿Con quién hablo? ............................................. With whom am I speaking?
¿Con quiénes estudia Roberto? ............................. With whom does Roberto study?

¿De quién?= Whose?
¿De quiénes?= Whose?
¿De quién es aquel sombrero? ........................... Whose hat is that?
¿De quiénes son estas monedas? ....................... Whose coins are these?

¿Por qué?= Why?
¿Por qué estudias español? ................................ For what reason do you study Spanish?
Porque voy a viajar a Mexico.............................. Because I am going to travel to Mexico.

¿Para qué?= For what?
¿Para qué estudias español? ............................... For what purpose do you study Spanish?
Para ayudar a los que no saben ingles................ To help those who do not speak English.
Please note :
Cual + to be (ser)= What
Que + to be (ser)= What

This not mean that there are interchangable because Cual + to be (ser) is used to indicate a selection or choices:
¿Cuál es la capital de España? ............................ What is the capital of Spain?

On the other hand, que is used to ask for an explanation or definition such as:
¿Qué es la capital? ............................................. What is the (definition of) capital?