¿qué te pasó?
In Spanish, "what happened to you" is translated as ¿qué te pasó?
This phrase is a question used to ask someone about a negative event or an accident that has affected them.
What does it mean word for word?
Literally, the phrase means "what to you happened?", composed of qué (what), te (to you/to thee) and pasó (happened).
Which one should you use?
While ¿qué te pasó? uses the past tense to ask about a completed event, ¿qué te pasa? uses the present tense to ask about a current state or an ongoing problem, such as "What is happening to you?" or "What is wrong with you?"
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Spain, you might use the expression ¿qué te ha pasado? to ask what happened to someone.
How does it change in a sentence?
If you are speaking to someone formally, you must change the indirect object pronoun from te to le.
Did you know?
- In many Latin American countries, if you ask ¿qué te pasó? with a certain tone, it can sound more like 'what's wrong with you?' or 'what's your problem?' rather than a sympathetic inquiry about an accident.
- The word qué is a direct descendant of the Latin word quid, which is also the root of the English word 'quid pro quo'.
- While English uses 'what happened' to describe events, the Spanish pasó comes from the verb 'pasar', which is also used to mean 'to pass' or 'to pass through' a physical space.
Examples in context
- ¿Qué te pasó?What happened to you?Tatoeba #1580468 by nancy, translation #1667947 by nickyeow
- ¡Oye! ¿Qué te pasó con ese moretón?Hey! What happened to you with that bruise?
- Te ves muy triste, ¿qué te pasó?You look very sad, what happened to you?
Example conversation
Alejandro sees Sofía limping in the park.
- AlejandroSofía, estás cojeando, ¿qué te pasó?Sofía, you are limping, what happened to you?
- SofíaMe caí mientras corría.I fell while I was running.
- Alejandro¡Qué mala suerte!What bad luck!
- SofíaSí, me duele mucho el tobillo.Yes, my ankle hurts a lot.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries qué, te, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
