Spanish qué vs que: accent, questions and clauses
Vocalyra teaching team · Last updated:
Spanish qué and que differ by a small written accent but perform different jobs. Qué is an interrogative or exclamatory word meaning what or how; unaccented que commonly connects clauses or introduces a relative clause. English speakers often omit the accent in indirect questions because English does not mark that distinction in spelling.
What the accent signals
Write qué when the word asks about an identity, thing, or information, even when the question is embedded inside a statement: ¿Qué necesitas? (What do you need?) and No sé qué necesitas (I do not know what you need). Write que without an accent when it introduces a complement: Creo que tienes razón (I think you are right). The accent marks grammatical function, not merely whether a question mark is present.
Direct questions and exclamations
Use ¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?) and ¿Qué quieres comer? (What do you want to eat?) for direct questions. Qué also appears in exclamations: ¡Qué bonito! (How beautiful!) and ¡Qué sorpresa! (What a surprise!). In speech, intonation helps; in writing, the accent is required. The opening inverted punctuation belongs to the whole direct question or exclamation.
Indirect questions still take qué
A question can sit inside a larger statement: Dime qué pasó (Tell me what happened), Preguntó qué queríamos (She asked what we wanted), and No recuerdo qué compré (I do not remember what I bought). None needs outer question marks, but each still contains a question word. Compare Dime qué quieres (Tell me what you want) with Dime que quieres salir (Tell me that you want to leave). The accent changes the structure and meaning.
Unaccented que connects ideas
Que is often equivalent to English that: Espero que vengas (I hope you come). It can also function as a relative pronoun: El libro que compré es interesante (The book that I bought is interesting). In both cases, it connects material rather than asking what. Relative que can refer to people or things depending on the construction, and it does not acquire an accent simply because the sentence is a question elsewhere.
How to decide quickly
Test whether you can paraphrase the word as which thing or what information. If yes, choose qué: ¿Sabes qué significa? (Do you know what it means?). If the word instead links two statements or identifies a noun, choose que: Sé que es difícil (I know that it is difficult); La canción que escuchas (The song you are listening to). Avoid a mechanical rule that all question sentences contain qué: ¿Crees que vendrá? uses unaccented que because it introduces what is believed.
Daily writing routine
Write three lines about your day: one direct question with qué, one indirect question with qué, and one statement with que. For example: ¿Qué hacemos mañana?; No sé qué haremos; Creo que lloverá. Read each line aloud and explain why the accent is present or absent. This meaning-first check is more reliable than memorizing punctuation alone.
A workplace message with both spellings
Imagine a colleague writes: No sé qué documento necesitas, pero creo que Ana lo tiene. The first qué introduces the unknown information, while the second que introduces a belief. Reply with ¿Qué documento buscas? and then El documento que enviamos ayer está aquí. This short exchange contains an indirect question, a complement clause, a direct question, and a relative clause. Rather than treating the four forms as a spelling puzzle, identify each clause’s job. In your next email, circle every que and ask whether it seeks information or simply joins ideas.
Quick reference examples
| Word or sentence | Explanation |
|---|---|
| ¿Qué quieres? | Interrogative qué (what) |
| Creo que sí. | Conjunction que (that) |
| ¡Qué sorpresa! | Exclamatory qué |
Quick self-check
What do you need? ¿___ necesitas?
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Qué
I think you are right: Creo ___ tienes razón.
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que
Tell me what happened: Dime ___ pasó.
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qué
The book that I bought: El libro ___ compré.
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que
How beautiful! ¡___ bonito!
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Qué
Do you know what time it is? ¿Sabes ___ hora es?
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qué
Correct: No sé que quieres.
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No sé qué quieres.
Does ¿Crees que vendrá? take an accent on que?
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No; que introduces the believed proposition.