When Spanish Is About Adverbs: How to Use "When"

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Are you ready to add some spice to your Spanish? Whether you're a seasoned language learner or just dipping your toes into the waters of español, you may be wondering about how to use the Spanish adverb "cuándo" (when).

But what does it mean, and how can you use it to improve your language skills? This article will explore the various ways to translate and convey the idea of "when" in Spanish, with and without the adverb itself!

Interrogative Adverbs in Spanish

Interrogative adverbs in Spanish are words used to ask questions about specific circumstances or the details of an action or event. If you’re learning Spanish on your own, here there’s a short explanation of the five interrogative adverbs in Spanish:

¿Cómo?

It's used to ask about the manner in which something is done or carried out.

¿Cuándo?

This word is used to ask about the time when something happened or will happen in the future.

It's different from the word "cuando," without an accent, used to express a different idea:

We'll dive deep into this a bit further down the line!

¿Dónde?

It's used to ask about location.

¿Por qué?

It's used to ask about the reason or motive behind an action or event.

¿Cuánto?

It's used to ask about the quantity or number of something.

How to Use These New Words

While this new vocabulary can be a bit overwhelming, note that using these interrogative adverbs is not that difficult. First, they can be used in both direct and indirect questions.

In direct questions, they are placed at the beginning of the sentence and written between question marks (¿?). In indirect questions, they are used to introduce the subject of a question within an affirmative or negative sentence. For example:

Direct question:

This would receive an answer like "a las ocho en punto" or any other schedule.

Indirect question:

While this looks like a statement, it's actually a question and the person may answer "cuando era joven" or any other period in their life.

In summary, interrogative adverbs in Spanish are words or sentences used to ask questions about the specific circumstances or details of an action or event and can be used in both direct and indirect questions.

A Note on Cuándo vs. Cuando

Surely, you have noticed that cuándo has an accent on the “a.” Don’t forget to add it! This accent is what differentiates it from another very similar word: cuando.

But… what’s the difference between cuándo and cuando? While both cuándo and cuando are adverbs and both mean “when” in Spanish, cuándo is used when asking a direct or indirect question, and cuando is used in statements.

Cuando

Cuándo

Other Ways to Say When in Spanish

Cuándo is the literal translation of “when,” but learning it is not the only way to ask and talk about time! Here are some other expressions you need to know if you want to accurately ask about the time using other expressions.

¿En qué momento?

¿En qué momento? means “In what moment?”, and it's a bit more specific than using "cuándo." For example:

¿A qué hora?

¿A qué hora? means “At what time?”. When we use this question, we’re asking about a specific time of the day. For example:

¿Qué día?

¿Qué día? means “What day?”. When we use this question, we are asking about a particular date:

¿En qué mes?

¿En qué mes? means “On which month?”

¿En qué año?

Finally, ¿en qué año? means “On which year?”

The Bottom Line

All in all, using "when" in Spanish is not that hard. It's all about understanding its meaning and learning a couple of rules to formulate the questions you want to ask.

When Spanish gets too complicated, you can always consult a good dictionary or use a language-learning app like Langster. By means of entertaining, real-life texts, you'll learn new vocabulary such as adverbs and pronouns, to start using them in the most natural, effortless way!