Word order is fairly flexible when it comes to Portuguese questions, so let’s review the possibilities. Then we’ll introduce one more option that you haven’t seen yet.
Yes/No Questions Word Order
1. Add a question mark to the end of a statement
Tu estás em PortugalYou are in Portugal
Tu estás em Portugal?Are you in Portugal?
2. Add a phrase like “não é?” to the end of a statement
Ela é portuguesaShe is Portuguese
Ela é portuguesa, não é?She is Portuguese, isn’t she?, She is Portuguese, right?
Open-Ended Questions Word Order
Up until this point, you’ve mostly seen open-ended questions with this word order:
Quem és?Who are you?
Com quem vais a Nova Iorque?Who are you going to New York with?
In these examples, the question word is at the beginning of the phrase and if there’s a preposition, it always comes right before the interrogative adverb/pronoun (i.e. the “question word”).
However, it’s important to note that in Portuguese, the prepositional phrase as a whole can be found either at the beginning or at the end of the question. There are no rules and the meaning is the same either way. (That said, you might hear certain phrases at the end of questions more often than others, such as com quem/qual, até quando, and para onde/quem, to name a few.)
Let’s see some examples of how the prepositional phrase can be moved to end. All of these are acceptable options in Portuguese questions:
Com quem vais a Nova Iorque?Who are you going to New York with?
Vais a Nova Iorque com quem?You are going to New York with whom?
De que estão a falar?What are you talking about?
Estão a falar de quê?*You're talking about what?
*Note: When the word que is placed at the end of the question, it becomes quê.
Let’s give this alternate word order a try in the next few lessons!
When adding a phrase like “não é” does it have to be for just “é” verbs? or is it common to add “não é” to everything?
You can add it to sentences in general 🙂
When I come across questions in the smart review, I’m not always sure if I’m saying it correctly or not. for example I may think ” vais a Nova Iorque com quem?” and then the solution is “com quem vais a Nova Iorque?” and the same with the “‘e que” sometimes I add it sometimes I don’t and I almost always seem to be different from the solution, so I start to doubt my answer. I know it would mean a lot of work for you but maybe in the solutions you could put all the possible answers so, for people like me, we can know if we’re saying it correctly or not. Just a thought 🙂
Thanks for the feedback! We’ll look into this. Working in every possible answer could be tricky because there are often so many ways to say basically the same thing, but I agree that it would be helpful if we can find a way to include common alternatives more often. (With phrases like the examples you mentioned, you would be correct either way in most cases. Both word orders are acceptable and é que is optional)
Olá – I’ve noticed the word “que” is pronounced differently at times. For example: De que estão a falar?” is pronounced like “cuh”, and “Para que é isto?” is pronounced as “key.” What is the reason for the different pronunciations?
Olá. Good question! The E in ‘que’, by default, sounds like what you described as ‘uh’. But when it’s followed by a more open vowel, this E is typically pronounced like an ‘ee’ at normal speed. That’s what happens in your second example (“Para que é isto?”), where the E of “é” is very open and modifies the vowel just before. In the first example (“De que estão a falar?”), both Es sound the same, so there’s no change in pronunciation.
These pronunciation variations are addressed in this Learning Note: Pronunciation Variations
This sound kind of like how we pronounce “the” in English. If the next word starts with a consonant, we say “thuh,” but if it starts with a vowel, we say “thee.” It’s easier this way.
Estás a cozinhar para quem?
Could this also mean why (for what reason) are you cooking?
Olá 🙂 That sentence only translates as “Who are you cooking for?”.
that’s a very looooong lesson 🙁