Question words and short questions in Latvian
How it works
Question words are important building blocks for questions in Latvian. The most common include ‹kas› (who/what), ‹kur› (where), ‹kad› (when), ‹kāpēc› (why), ‹cik› (how much/how many), ‹kāds› (what kind of?/what sort of?) and ‹kurš›/‹kura› (which). They often stand at the beginning of the sentence. Short questions often consist only of a question word and a verb or subject, for example ‹Kur tu esi?›. Some question words change their form depending on case: ‹kas› includes, for example, ‹ko› and ‹kam›, and ‹kurš›/‹kura› includes, for example, ‹kuru›. With ‹kas› you ask about people or things, with ‹kur› about places and with ‹kad› about times.
Choose the question word that fits the information you want: ‹kas› for people/things, ‹kur› for places, ‹kad› for times, ‹kāpēc› for reasons, ‹cik› for quantities, ‹kāds› for type or characteristic, and ‹kurš›/‹kura› or ‹kuru› for making a choice. Note that depending on the sentence, case forms such as ‹ko›, ‹kam› or ‹kuru› may be needed.
An example
Which question word fits: ‹___ tu dzīvo?›
Try it yourself now
50 Exercises
To the learning unit →Own explanation and own practice exercises by AmyMath. Subject reference framework: Latvian. The topic assignment may vary by federal state.