¿qué canción?
/ˈke kanˈθjon/word by word
The English phrase "what song" is translated into Spanish as ¿qué canción?
¿qué canción? is a question used to ask for the identity or title of a specific piece of music. If you are specifically asking for the lyrics of a song, the word for lyrics is letra.
How does it change in a sentence?
To expand this phrase into a complete sentence such as "What song is that?", you can add the verb es (is) and a demonstrative like esa (that) to form ¿Qué canción es esa?
How do you pronounce it?
/ˈke kanˈθjon/
Did you know?
- In many Spanish-speaking cultures, if you cannot remember the title of a song, you might describe it by saying it is a pegajosa, which literally means 'sticky'.
- If you are in a noisy place and cannot hear the music, you might ask ¿Qué canción suena?, using the verb 'suena' to mean 'is playing' or 'is sounding'.
- The word canción is a 'doublet' of the English word 'chanson', meaning they both share the same linguistic ancestor but arrived in English through different paths.
Examples in context
- ¡Me encanta esta canción! Pero no sé cómo se llama.I love this song! But I don't know what it's called.
- ¿Cuál es la canción que bailamos anoche?What's the song we were dancing to last night?
- ¿Qué canción es la que suena?What song is the one playing?
Sources
- IPA marked “word by word” joins the Wiktionary pronunciations of each word (qué, canción) and can differ in connected speech.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries canción, qué, CC BY-SA 4.0.
