Question Words
Question Words
Portuguese question words map neatly onto English ones — with one pair worth learning carefully, since they're spelled almost identically but mean opposite things.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
porque vs. porquê: "because" and "why" are one accent apart
Porque estás cansado? — no, wait: Porquê estás cansado? (Why are you tired?) / ...porque estou cansado (...because I'm tired)
Why are you tired? / ...because I'm tired
porquê (with the accent, standing alone or at the end of a sentence) means "why". porque (no accent, at the start of an answer) means "because". They're pronounced almost the same and constantly confused even by learners who know the rule — the safest habit is to associate the accent mark with questions and its absence with answers.
qual / quantos: some question words agree with gender or number
qual livro? (which book) — quantas casas? (how many houses, fem.)
which book? — how many houses?
Most Portuguese question words are invariant, like English. Two exceptions: qual ("which") becomes quais in the plural regardless of gender, while quanto ("how much/many") agrees with both gender and number — quanto, quanta, quantos, quantas — matching the noun it asks about, the same way um/uma and dois/duas do.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- what
- English
- who
- English
- where
- English
- when
- English
- why
- English
- how
- English
- which
- English
- how much
- English
- how many