Thread: Cuál or Qué?
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Old July 09, 2011, 01:38 PM
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aleCcowaN aleCcowaN is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Native Language: Castellano
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You know I like to show how a native brain works, so, here some questions and answers:

¿Qué es la capital de Perú? Una ciudad
¿Qué es tu razón para esto? Una razón
¿Qué es la respuesta? Una respuesta Una frase

Remember "ser" is the substantive verb in Spanish, so it makes the substance of things. Ask "qué" and you'll get the substance. Ask "cuál" and you'll got one spotted among many of similar substance. When you ask "¿qué/cuál dedo? nothing 'substantive' is going on. Notice that no article is needed, on the contrary (¿qué el dedo? ¿cuál el dedo?), but when a pronoun is involved we use "cuál" (¿cuál de ellos? / ¿cuál de tus dedos?), so what role plays "qué" in such a sentence. Well, I would say it just calls for attention or more information: give me any information that let me identify that thing among the blurry scene, even substantive info.
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