Many people learning Spanish get confused by whether to use “preguntar” or “pedir” when translating the English verb “to ask”. It might seem like the two could be interchanged, but in reality they are used in two very different ways.
Luckily, the rules that tell us which to use are pretty clear. Take a look:
When to use “PREGUNTAR”
- To ASK a question, to request information, to ask about something
- Me pregunta cuántos años tengo. (He asks me how old I am.)
- Vamos a preguntarle. (We’re going to ask her.)
- Preguntar por su coche. (She asks about his car.)
When to use “PEDIR”
- To ASK FOR something (an object, a favor, a service..)
- Quiero pedir su número de telefono. (I want to ask for her phone number.)
- Voy a pedir otra cerveza. (I’m going to ask for another beer.)
- Quiero pedirte un favor. (I want to ask you for a favor.)
Examples for Preguntar
English: Can I ask you when the train is leaving?
Español: ¿Te puedo preguntar cuándo sale el tren?
English: He has to question everything.
Español: Él tiene que preguntar todo.
English: He asked me where the bathroom was.
Español: Me preguntó dónde estaba el baño.
This last sentence is a good example el estilo indirecto, which tells you how to quote someone in Spanish and transfer information second hand.
In terms of prepositions, if you want to inquire about someone with preguntar then you’ll need to use the preposition por as follows:
English: Yesterday he was here asking for you.
Español: Ayer él estuvo aquí preguntando por ti.
The best way to think about this example is to consider ‘preguntar por alguien‘ in English as ‘ask about someone’ or ‘ask for someone’.
How to use preguntarse
While preguntar is for questioning others, preguntarse—the reflexive form—is for questioning yourself.
You can use preguntarse when you are ‘wondering’ about something.
For example:
English: I wonder if he is the best person to govern this country.
Español: Me pregunto si él es la mejor persona para gobernar este país.
English: He wonders why the streets are so empty.
Español: Se pregunta por qué las calles están tan vacías.
How to ‘ask’ a question
At this point, you’ve seen how to choose between pedir vs preguntar.
But, you may want to know how to form a question like: ‘Can I ask you a question?’
The temptation may be to think the best translation is: ¿Te puedo preguntar una pregunta?
But, unless you intended to bust a rhyme, this question sounds quite awkward.
So, to get around this problem, in Spanish you don’t ‘ask’ a question, instead you ‘make’ one.
The example from above is:
English: Can I ask you a question?
Español: ¿Te puedo hacer una pregunta?
Thus, you always need to think ‘to ask a question’ in Spanish is ‘hacer una pregunta‘.
English: We have to ask him a few questions.
Español: Tenemos que hacerle unas preguntas.
English: He asked me a question that I couldn’t answer.
Español: Me hizo una pregunta que no pude contestar.
Examples for Pedir
As a side note, when you use pedir to ask ‘for’ something, you don’t need a preposition like you would in English.
English: Can I ask you for a favour?
Español: ¿Te puedo pedir un favor?
English: I asked him for a beer.
Español: Le pedí una cerveza.
If it’s easier you can think of the translation as ‘I request a beer’ or ‘I request a favour’. This may help you remember there is no need for the preposition ‘for’ in the Spanish equivalent sentences.
Here are a few more examples:
English: I need money, but I’m not going to ask for money in the street.
Español: Necesito dinero, pero no voy a pedir dinero en la calle.
English: You already know that for dessert I always ask for ice cream.
Español: Ya sabes que de postre siempre pido helado.
All that said, you may still need to use a preposition such as por when using the verb pedir.
If, for example, you are asking the price ‘for’ something, then you’ll need por:
English: How much are they asking for this car?
Español: ¿Cuánto piden por este coche?
Here you can see that they are actually asking for ‘money‘ but in ‘exchange’ (por) their car.