How To Ask Questions In German – With Exercises 

Well, one of the first things you’ll learn in German is how to ask questions. For that, we have to learn some special question words, the so-called "interrogative adverbs".

You might ask: “Why is this so important?” (“Warum ist das so wichtig?”).

Hm… Why? Because without it, you wouldn’t even be able to ask the above question! Let's start with Anja's video on the subject to warm up.  

Without question words, you wouldn’t be able to find out important things in your everyday life like somebody's name, where you can eat or when your train leaves:

• Wie heißt du? (What’s your name?)
• Wo kann ich etwas essen? (Where can I eat something?)
• Wann fährt der Zug ab? (When does the train leave?)

You can ask questions in German with words that start with the letter “w”, which is why we call them “W-Wörter” (literally, w-words). 

In English grammar they're known as “wh-words”.

What Are Adverbs?

Adverbs describe other words like verbs, adjectives or even other adverbs and provide information about time, place, manner, or reason. Ok, but what does that mean? Let's take a look:

Adverbs of time

• gestern (yesterday)
• heute (today)
• morgen (tomorrow)
• abends (in the evening)
• ...

Adverbs of place 

• hier (here)
• da (there) 
• überall (everywhere) 
• ...

Adverbs of manner 

• irgendwie (somehow) 
• anders (differently) 
• vergebens (in vain, without success) 
• ...

Adverbs of reason

• deshalb (that's why) 
• nämlich (namely) 
• daher (therefore) 
• ...

Would you like to find out more? Check out our blog section on German adverbs.

What Are Interrogative Adverbs?

"W-Wörter" (wh-words) that we use in German to ask questions are also known as "interrogative adverbs". The word "interrogative" comes from Latin, and means "asking a question" or "being of the nature of a question".
 

Here are the most commonn ones:

• Wann? (When?)
• Wo? (Where?)
• Wie? (How? or What?)
• Warum? (Why?)
• Was? (What?) 

As you can see, their equivalents in English are mostly wh-words (When? Where? [How?] Why? What?). Every "W-Wort" (wh-word) is asking for something specific, some kind of explanation. The questions you ask with "W-Wörter" are called "W-Fragen" (wh-questions). Wh-questions can’t be answered with “yes” or “no”.

Instead, interrogative adverbs ("W-Wörter") ask information about time, place, manner or reason, so you can use adverbs of time, place, manner or reason in your answer. 

Let’s take a look at some examples:

1. Asking A Question In German With "Wann"

Possible answers: gestern / heute / morgen / etc.

• Wann beginnt der Winter? (When does winter start?) - Der Winter beginnt heute. (Winter begins today).
• Wann hast du Geburtstag? (When is your birthday?) - Ich habe morgen Geburtstag. (My birthday is tomorrow.)
• Wann ist die Besprechung? (When is the meeting?) - Die Besprechung war gestern. (The meeting was yesterday.)

2. Asking A Question In German With "Wo"

Possible answers: hier / da / überall / etc.

• Wo ist meine Sonnenbrille? (Where are my sunglasses?) - Deine Sonnenbrille ist hier. (Your sunglasses are here.) 
• Wo wohnst du? (Where do you live?) - Ich wohne da. (I live there.)
• Wo kann ich Pilze finden? (Where can I find mushrooms?) - Die kannst du überall finden. (You can find them everywhere.)

3. Asking A Question In German With "Wie"

Possible answers: irgendwie / anders / vergebens / etc.

• Wie ist dein neuer Freund? (What's your new boyfriend like?) - Er ist anders. (He is different.)
• Wie machen wir das? (How will we do that?) - Wir finden irgendwie eine Lösung. (We will find a solution somehow.)
• Wie war die Suche? (What was the search like?) - Sie war leider vergebens. (It was unsuccessful, unfortunately.)

4. Asking A Question In German With "Warum"

Possible answers: deshalb / nämlich / daher / etc.

• Warum lernst du Deutsch? (Why are you learning German?) - Ich mag es. Deshalb lerne ich Deutsch. (I like it. That's why I learn German.)
• Warum machen wir schon Schluss? (Why are we stopping already?) - Oh, das ist so: Ich habe nämlich noch einen Termin. (Oh, it's like this: It's because I have another appointment.)
• Warum kommst du so spät? (Why are you so late?) - Es gab einen Stau, daher komme ich so spät. (There was a traffic jam, that's why I'm so late.)

As we can see from the above examples, the connection between interrogative adverbs and other adverbs can be described like this:

• They can be grouped by the type of information (time, place, manner, reason) they offer.
• They act as question-answer pairs.    

However, interrogative adverbs differentiate themselves from other adverbs through the following: 

Interrogative adverbs can also introduce indirect questions. They look like this:

• Er hat mich gefragt, wann ich morgen komme. (He asked me when I’m coming tomorrow.)
• Ich habe dir doch gesagt, wie man das macht. (I told you how to do that.)
• Sie hat mir erklärt, warum sie nicht kommt. (She explained to me, why she cannot come.)

Wo ist meine Sonnenbrille?
Where are my sunglasses?

Examples Of Interrogative Adverbs

Since interrogative adverbs ask about time, place, manner and reason, we can divide them into groups based on each of those categories:

1. Asking About Time In German

Below, we will give you examples of several questions words (interrogative adverbs) that are used in German to ask about time.

wann (when)

• Wann fährt der Zug ab? (When does the train leave?)
• Wann beginnt der Winter? (When does winter start?)
• Wann kommt er? (When is he coming?)

bis wann (until when, how long)

• Bis wann bleibst du im Kino? (Until when will you stay at the cinema?)
• Bis wann ist das Zertifikat gültig? (How long is the certificate valid?)
• Bis wann brauchen Sie die Informationen? (Until when do you need the information?)

seit wann (since when, how long)

• Seit wann bist du wieder hier? (How long have you been back here?)
• Seit wann hat er eine neue Freundin? (Since when does he have a new girlfriend?)
• Seit wann trainiert er Tennis? (How long has he been training tennis?)

wie lange (how long)

• Wie lange lernst du Deutsch? (How long have you been learning German?)
• Wie lange kennen wir uns? (How long have we known each other?)
• Wie lange bleibst du noch? (How long will you stay?)

wie oft (how often)

• Wie oft gehst du ins Kino? (How often do you go to the movies?)
• Wie oft trainiert er? (How often does he train?)
• Wie oft lernst du Deutsch? (How often do you study German?) 

2. Asking About Place And Direction In German

Below, we will give you examples with the three main "W-Wörter" (questions words) used in German to ask about place and direction.

wo (where)

• Wo wohnst du? (Where do you live?)
• Wo arbeitet sie? (Where does she work?)
• Wo siehst du dich in fünf Jahren? (Where do you see yourself in five years?)

woher (where from)

• Woher kommst du? (Where are you from?)
• Woher kommt der Lärm? (Where is the noise coming from?)
• Woher hat sie diese Information? (Where did she get this information from?)

wohin (where [to])

• Wohin gehst du? (Where are you going?)
• Wohin fährt der Bus? (Where does the bus go?)
• Wohin gehören die Hemden? (Where do the shirts belong?)

3. Asking About Manner In German

Below, we will give you examples of how to ask about manner in German.

wie (how)

• Wie geht das? (How does that work?)
• Wie hast du das gemacht? (How did you do it?)
• Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof? (How do I get to the railway station?)

4. Asking About Reason In German

Below, you will find examples of German interrogative adverbs ("W-Wörter") to ask about reason.

warum (why)

• Warum musst du das wissen? (Why do you have to know that?)
• Warum willst du nicht kommen? (Why don't you want to come?)
• Warum nicht? (Why not?)

Note that we can say “warum” (why) in two other ways: “weshalb” is a formal version, while “wieso” (why? how come?) is a colloquial variation. 

wozu (what for)

• Wozu brauchst du das? (What do you need that for?)
• Wozu dient das? (What’s this for?)
• Wozu machen wir diese Besprechung? (What do we do this meeting for?)

Wieso? Weshalb? Warum?

Why?

Summary

As usual at the bottom of the post, you can now test your knowledge on how to ask questions in German. It's a quick quiz, and it's fun. Come on, let's try:

Quiz: How To Ask Questions In German