What's the different between Qué and Cuál?

Question

For example, it is posible to say ¿Cuál es tu nombre? ¿cuál es la capital de España? but it is ungrammatical to say *¿qué es tu nombre? *¿qué es la capital de España?

Answer 1

While it is often taught that qué means what and cuál means which, I don’t agree that that’s a good way to think of it. The reality is that there are certain words and phrases you just have to know; as in English, sometimes there are too many exceptions to a rule for it to be useful.

I also don’t agree that thinking and memorizing in terms of a direct English translation is a good idea. It may help with a specific word or phrase, but in general it contributes to bad habits in language acquisition. The reality, sad though it may be for some, is that the only true way to be consistently successful in correctly using these words is by learning each specific phrase.

https://www.realfastspanish.com/vocabulary/que-vs-cual

The above link is a good resource for determining which word to use, and it provides some examples of contradictions to the commonly taught rule I mentioned in the first paragraph.

Answer 2

This is a great - and common! - question that can be answered in a few different ways depending on what you, the student, really need to know and how you need to apply the information.

In a nutshell..."cuál" means "which" and "qué" means "what." So let's start there.

Can things get more complicated down the road in terms of how and when you actually use each of these?

Yep. Absolutely.

For today though, we're keeping it simple. My answer is on the same level as the specific questions that were asked with a helpful comparison in English.

Watch the short video above for my explanation! :)

Answer 3

Good question about what the difference is between ¿Qué? and ¿Cual?

¿Qué means "what?"

¿Cual means "which?"

Roughly translated, "¿Cuál es tu nombre?" and "¿cuál es la capital de España?", mean "Which is your name?" and "Which is the capital of Spain?". Since these questions use "which" (¿Cuál?) as opposed to "what" (¿Qué?), chances are those two questions above imply a list of names available on paper (like when filling out a form or taking a multiple-choice test). Whereas the other questions: "¿qué es tu nombre?" "¿qué es la capital de España?" refer to more specific information, as in having one answer only.

I hope this helps! (And by the way, the capital of Spain is Madrid. :) )