Noción

[Aiman]

Hola,

During the last three weeks i was looking and trying to find my way to start learning Spanish, and cause i have a good luck i found this nice forum, beside the warm welcome i got here i had to think how to share and how to be useful as well.. therefore, today i came with an idea it might be already exist in this wonderful forum but maybe cause im lazy one couldn't find it lol... anyways the idea is to put the new thing we learn in one thread so i'll start with what i learned during the pass week:

I like to start with how to ask questions:

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Aiman

Hola,

During the last three weeks i was looking and trying to find my way to start learning Spanish, and cause i have a good luck i found this nice forum, beside the warm welcome i got here i had to think how to share and how to be useful as well.. therefore, today i came with an idea it might be already exist in this wonderful forum but maybe cause im lazy one couldn't find it lol... anyways the idea is to put the new thing we learn in one thread so i'll start with what i learned during the pass week:

I like to start with how to ask questions:

Spanish has two types of possessive adjectives/pronouns for first-person singular, second-person singular, and third-person singular and plural: short forms, and full forms.

The short forms [mi(s), tu(s), su(s)] are adjectives, and they always come before the noun. They also make the noun definite, so that you cannot use any other article or demonstrative adjective before the noun.

The full forms [mío/a(s), tuyo/a(s), suyo/a(s)] may be either pronouns or adjectives. When they are adjectives, they always follow the noun.

[Aiman]

Gracias profesor

[Nivar]

I would add to wrholt´s reply that, for instance, ¿Cuál es su nombre? is a very formal way of asking whats your name. It is the way a judge or a policeman would approach someone in the Court.

In Spain, we normaly avoid using "su". It is more common to say: ¿Cuál es tu nombre? and more likely to say: ¿Cómo te llamas?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Nivar

¿Cuál es tu nombre?

I agree that it's more natural to ask "¿Cómo te llamas" / "¿Cómo se llama (usted)?"

[Nivar]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

I agree that it's more natural to ask "¿Cómo te llamas" / "¿Cómo se llama (usted)?"

You are right correcting the "tú", which has no accent (tilde) in this case, as it is a possessive and not a pronoun. My mistake.

[Aiman]

Originally Posted by Nivar

I would add to wrholt´s reply that, for instance, ¿Cuál es su nombre? is a very formal way of asking whats your name. It is the way a judge or a policeman would approach someone in the Court.

In Spain, we normaly avoid using "su". It is more common to say: ¿Cuál es tú nombre? and more likely to say: ¿Cómo te llamas?

Gracias,

buts is this can be used for the rest questions?

[Nivar]

All others are perfect.

¿Cuál es su/tu dirección/profesión/nacionalidad?

You will use "su" if you are talking with elderly people, someone you do not know and you want to keep certain distance with or your boss.

You will use "tu" in all other cases.

These three questions, related to address, profession or nacionality do not have the same problem as the one related to the name.

Nevertheless, you can always use more coloquial:

¿Dónde vives? ¿En qué trabajas? ¿De qué país eres?