Cuál or Qué?

[Alfonso]

David answered right:

Escrito originalmente por Tomisimo

¿Qué hay para comer?
¿Cuál de los dos te gusta más?
¿Qué tienes ahí? (Could also be cuál if you're asking which of several)
¿Qué película vamos a ver?
Ponen Superman, Locademia de policía... ¿Cuál vamos a ver?
¿Qué más?
¿Qué tienes? (could also be cuál depending on context)
¿Qué piensas?
¿Qué sugieres? (could also be cuál depending on context)
¿Que quieres? (could also be cuál depending on context)

And I would say that, where David says depending on context, he means you are asking which of several. This is the point when you doubt which one (qué or cuál) you must use. Two rules can be derived from David's responses (I'm sorry I'm not giving a truly and complete inductive explanation. I'm jumping over this phase. But I think you all can do it analysing the answers and looking for the rules implied in them):

1. Never use cuál with a noun after it, as cuál is always a pronoun.
2. Use cuál when you are asking which one of several.

To me, the other cases are also included in the rules above.

[Elaina]

Entonces..........

¿Cuál hombre es el que te asaltó? (is incorrect?)
¿Qué hombre te asalto? (correct? incorrect?)

¿Cuál de todos es el que te asaltó? (correct?)



Elaina

[poli]

Escrito originalmente por Gemma

Gracias , Poli, por hacer la pelota a la nueva pelota. Cuando dices la estrenamos mucho, supongo que quieres decir la estrañamos mucho.
Lo último que oí de la antigua pelota no es muy bueno.A veces la búsqueda de la libertad no acaba bien...

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo-N3pPLPLE

Entiendo. Como Ícaro se le quemó sus alas cuando libramente acercó el sol

[Alfonso]

Escrito originalmente por Elaina

Entonces..........

¿Cuál hombre es el que te asaltó?
¿Qué hombre te asaltó?

¿Cuál de todos es el que te asaltó?



Elaina

.....

[Elaina]

Gracias Alfonso...

Elaina

[laepelba]

Resurecting an old thread....

I just did an exercise on ¿Qué? y ¿Cuál? and there are two for which I do not understand the answer....

5) English sentence: What is your reason for this?
The book's Spanish sentence: ¿Cuál es tu razón por esto?

11) English sentence: What is the answer?
The book's Spanish sentence: ¿Cuál es la respuesta?

I see that they're both followed by a verb, but that doesn't always mean that the sentence must use cuál. Right? I was thinking that when you use "cual", there is usually a better defined pool of answers to choose from (do we call that more "countable"?) and that when we use "que" (like David said in one of the first posts here) that we're looking for an explanation, description, definition, etc.... I think that both of these sentences seem to express a desired explanation as a response.

Auxilio!

[laepelba]

Okay - I am going to add another question to what I wrote in the previous post. Yesterday I was studying "qué" and "cuál". I thought I understood them before, but now I feel like I am more confused. I should have left it alone.

Anyway, last evening, a friend sent me an email in which she said the following: "Me corte el dedo con el cuchillo - cortando un limon...."

And my response was: "¿Cuál dedo?"

Yet, I went back and corrected myself. To me, "cuál" sounds better here, but David said (much earlier in this thread) that "qué" always precedes a noun. Or am I wrong here? "5. Note that cuál is never used with a noun right after it."

But my Mexican friend said the following: "En este caso puedes usar los 2: que dedo o cual dedo.... Aunque cual dedo suena mejor, pues quieres saber cual de todos no?" I would also say that I feel like "cuál" suena mejor......

Auxilio nuevamente!!

[aleCcowaN]

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.

[laepelba]

Okay, thanks - that makes sense!!