¿............... el timbre? / Can you hear the doorbell?

Colin H.A2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

¿............... el timbre? / Can you hear the doorbell?

Hi,

I have just completed a test which included the above.

I answered: Oyes tu (sorry, can't get accents to work), which was marked wrong.

Another question was: ¿..................... la chimenea?  Two answers were given: Enciendes and Enciendes tu.  This was marked nearly right.

Are the answers with 'tu' (or any other personal pronoun) not acceptable in Spanish?  Is the only way to ask a question in Spanish to raise the tone at the end?

Look forward to your reply.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Colin

Asked 3 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Colin

With reference to ¿Oyes tú el timbre?, it is also correct. We didn't include it as a possible correct answer because we don't tend to place the subject after the verb - it would sound a bit less natural. In questions we generally keep the same order as the statement and add the ¿ ? using a different intonation for a question. 

So, the most natural way would be ¿Oyes el timbre? or ¿Tú oyes el timbre?

With reference to "la chimenea" question, I imagine that Kwizbot only gave you "nearly correct" because you may have missed the accent on "tú".

The only way we recognize a question when we are speaking is the change in intonation, yes. And if you see it written it'd be the question marks of course. 

I hope this helped.

Saludos

Inma

Colin H.A2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Thanks for the clarification, Inma.

Colin

¿............... el timbre? / Can you hear the doorbell?

Hi,

I have just completed a test which included the above.

I answered: Oyes tu (sorry, can't get accents to work), which was marked wrong.

Another question was: ¿..................... la chimenea?  Two answers were given: Enciendes and Enciendes tu.  This was marked nearly right.

Are the answers with 'tu' (or any other personal pronoun) not acceptable in Spanish?  Is the only way to ask a question in Spanish to raise the tone at the end?

Look forward to your reply.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Colin

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
Getting that for you now...