Ready to learn some finer points of Spanish? Here is a great explanation of Qué versus Cuál by our resident Spanish teacher Tyson Scott. Remember he offers Spanish lessons every week. Feel free to contact him with any questions here styson18@gmail.com.

Word pairs like this can be confusing because when we translate them into English they often come out as the same word.  Qué and Cuál both mean “what” and “which” but they cannot be used interchangeably.

Qué asks for a definition or identification.

¿Qué haces? What are you doing?
¿Qué desayunaste? What did you have for breakfast?

Use qué + a noun to ask “which one”

¿Qué camisa vas a ponerte? Which shirt are you going to put on?
¿Qué computadora compraste? Which computer did you buy?

Cual + a form of ser is used to ask “what”

¿Cuál es tu nombre? What is your name? (out of all the possible names, which is yours?)

If we asked: ¿Qué es tu nombre?  We would be asking for a literal definition of name.  My name is what people say when they want my attention.
Cuál + de + a plural noun means “which” between two or more choices.

¿Cuál de las faldas prefieres? Which skirt do you prefer?
¿Cuál de estos carros me recomiendes? Which of these cars do you recommend?

The plural of cuál is cuáles

¿Cuáles te gustan? Which ones do you like?

Related posts:

1. Manzanillo Spanish Tip #2- Introductions
2. Manzanillo Spanish Tip #4- To Be Or Not To Be and Tener
3. Spanish Punctuation
4. Manzanillo Spanish Tip #5 - Tener to Express Obligation
5. Learn Spanish In Manzanillo