¿En qué año estamos?
To ask "what year is it?" in Spanish, say ¿En qué año estamos?
¿En qué año estamos? is the natural way to ask the current year. Spanish frames it as which year are we in.
What does it mean word for word?
En means in, qué means what or which, año means year and estamos means we are.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Keep the tilde in año, without it the word means something completely different. Also keep the accent on qué in a question.
Did you know?
- Removing the tilde from año creates the word ano, which refers to the anus. This small spelling change transforms a question about time into a very crude anatomical reference.
- In Spanish, you cannot simply say ¿Qué año es? to ask the date. Doing so sounds like you are asking which specific year in history a certain event occurred rather than asking for the current year.
- While ¿En qué año estamos? is standard, some speakers use ¿En qué año se encuentra uno? to sound more formal or detached, as if asking where one finds oneself in the timeline.
Examples in context
- ¿En qué año estamos?What year is it?
- Perdone, ¿en qué año estamos?Excuse me, what year is it?
- No recuerdo, ¿en qué año estamos?I don't remember, what year is it?
