100+ Spanish Trivia Questions & Answers

Question: What other name is Spanish culture often called in Spain and Latin America?

Answer: Castellano

Question: How many native speakers of the Spanish language were recorded between 2022 and 2024?

Answer: 484 million

Question: Including second-language speakers, what is the total number of Spanish speakers worldwide?

Answer: 558 million

Question: Spanish, as an official language, belongs to which language family?

Answer: Indo-European

Question: Spanish is classified under which branch of the Romance languages?

Answer: West Iberian (Ibero-Romance)

Question: Which script does the Spanish language use for writing?

Answer: Latin script

Question: How many Spanish-speaking countries recognize Spanish as an official language?

Answer: 20 countries

Question: Which association regulates Spanish language standards and Spanish culture usage?

Answer: Association of Spanish Language Academies

Question: What is the ISO 639-1 language code for Spanish?

Answer: es

Question: What is the ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3 code for Spanish, used in international quizzes?

Answer: spa

Question: Spanish is the world’s second-most spoken native language after which language?

Answer: Mandarin Chinese

Question: Overall, Spanish ranks fourth most spoken language after English, Mandarin, and what?

Answer: Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu)

Question: Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language, but what is the term for its traditional Basque Country influences?

Answer: Castilian

Question: Which country leads as the most populous Spanish-speaking country by native speakers?

Answer: Mexico

Question: Spanish is one of the six official languages of which international organization?

Answer: United Nations

Question: Aside from Latin script, Spanish uses what braille system with UNESCO World Heritage site labeling materials?

Answer: Spanish Braille

Question: Which unique letter, distinct from “n,” defines Spanish orthography and appears in Spanish culture quizzes?

Answer: ñ (eñe)

Question: Since 2010, which digraphs are treated as letter pairs rather than single letters in Spanish collation?

Answer: ch and ll

Question: Who authored the first modern European grammar of the Spanish language in 1492, often featured in history buff trivia?

Answer: Antonio de Nebrija

Question: Approximately what percentage of modern Spanish vocabulary is of Latin origin, an important fact for language quizzes?

Answer: 75%

Question: Spanish language evolved from which form of Latin introduced to Iberia?

Answer: Vulgar Latin

Question: The earliest written traces of Spanish culture appear in which century?

Answer: 9th century

Question: The first systematic written use of Spanish occurred in which city in northern Spain?

Answer: Toledo

Question: Who wrote the Gramática de la lengua castellana in 1492, a milestone in Spanish language history?

Answer: Antonio de Nebrija

Question: Spanish derives from the Vulgar Latin term hispaniolus, meaning what in history buff quizzes?

Answer: Of Hispania

Question: Which Spanish Constitution article calls Castellano the official language of Spain?

Answer: Article III

Question: Approximately how many Arabic-derived words does Spanish have, reflecting its Andalusian heritage?

Answer: 4,000 (≈8%)

Question: Which medieval documents record the earliest Castilian words, used in Hispanic Heritage Month quizzes?

Answer: Visigothic Cartularies of Valpuesta

Question: Spanish colonialism spread the language and culture to which world region most notably?

Answer: The Americas

Question: What term described Spanish in medieval times before it was called castellano?

Answer: Romance or Lengua vulgar

Question: Which novelist’s work led to Spanish being nicknamed "la lengua de Cervantes"?

Answer: Miguel de Cervantes

Question: During Visigothic rule, Spanish borrowed words from which Germanic language?

Answer: Gothic

Question: What is the process by which Latin vīta became Spanish vida, featured in phonology quizzes?

Answer: Lenition of intervocalic consonants

Question: Which 15th-16th century change gave Spanish the /x/ sound in letters like ⟨j⟩?

Answer: Reajuste de las sibilantes

Question: Before the name Castellano, speakers generically called the language what?

Answer: Romance

Question: Which Spanish city’s media dialect set the standard for European Spanish?

Answer: Madrid

Question: What palatalization process changed Latin annum to Spanish año in Spanish language trivia?

Answer: Palatalization of geminates

Question: Why did Spanish stressed e and o diphthongize differently than Portuguese and Catalan?

Answer: Distinct Romance evolution

Question: Who famously told Queen Isabella that language is the instrument of empire?

Answer: Antonio de Nebrija

Question: Which empire’s collapse led to the evolution of Iberian Romance dialects like Spanish?

Answer: Western Roman Empire

Question: How many vowel phonemes does Spanish have, a key fact for quiz game students?

Answer: Five (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/)

Question: Depending on dialect, Spanish has how many consonant phonemes for trivia questions?

Answer: 17–19

Question: What merger of /ʎ/ and /ʝ/ in most Spanish-speaking regions is known as?

Answer: Yeísmo

Question: What feature distinguishes /θ/ from /s/ in northern Spain quizzes?

Answer: Distinción

Question: What term describes aspirating syllable-final /s/ like an [h] in Canary Islands dialect quizzes?

Answer: Aspiration

Question: If no accent mark is present and a Spanish word ends in n, s, or vowel, where is stress?

Answer: Penultimate syllable

Question: In Spanish orthography, what marks irregular stress used in traditional point value questions?

Answer: Acute accent

Question: Spanish is a syllable-timed language, meaning each syllable holds equal length in phonology quizzes?

Answer: Syllable-timed

Question: How many moods does Spanish grammar include for advanced language buffs?

Answer: Four (indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative)

Question: Spanish verbs have approximately how many conjugated forms, a fun fact for students?

Answer: About fifty

Question: Spanish allows dropping subject pronouns; what is this called in syntax quizzes?

Answer: Pro-drop

Question: What is the default word order in Spanish, tested in world language quizzes?

Answer: Subject–verb–object (SVO)

Question: How many tenses do Spanish verbs have?

Answer: Three (past, present, future)

Question: Which pronoun distinction marks formal vs. informal address in Spanish trivia?

Answer: T–V distinction (usted vs. tú/vos)

Question: Which mood expresses uncertainty and pairs with the conditional in advanced quizzes?

Answer: Subjunctive

Question: What suffixes do Spanish infinitives end with, a Spanish language lesson fact?

Answer: –ar, –er, –ir

Question: Spanish syntax tends to place modifiers after heads; what is this typological term?

Answer: Right-branching

Question: What historical sound change produces the velar fricative [x] for ⟨j⟩?

Answer: Reajuste de las sibilantes

Question: What phonological process turns unstressed /i/ and /u/ into glides?

Answer: Allophonic reduction

Question: Which letter represents the palatal nasal /ɲ/ in Spanish orthography?

Answer: ñ

Question: In how many countries is Spanish the primary official language, important for geography quizzes?

Answer: 20

Question: Which U.S. territory officially uses Spanish alongside English and features in Hispanic Heritage Month?

Answer: Puerto Rico

Question: According to 2020 U.S. census data, how many U.S. residents speak Spanish at home?

Answer: 41.8 million

Question: What percentage of the U.S. population speaks Spanish at home, a fun fact for heritage quizzes?

Answer: About 13%

Question: Which South American country co-officializes Spanish with Quechua and Aymara?

Answer: Peru

Question: Which African country is the only one entirely Spanish-speaking today?

Answer: Equatorial Guinea

Question: In Europe, which microstate shares Catalan, Spanish, and French in trilingual quizzes?

Answer: Andorra

Question: What mixed language named for Portugal and español appears in border villages?

Answer: Portuñol

Question: What Spanish-based creole, spoken in Mindanao, is featured in Philippines language trivia?

Answer: Chavacano

Question: What initiative made Spanish a mandatory foreign language in Brazilian schools in 2005?

Answer: SAFFL

Question: Which Brazilian president revoked the 2005 Spanish language law in 2016?

Answer: Michel Temer

Question: Which U.S. neighborhood reintroduced Spanish despite never being under Spanish rule?

Answer: Spanish Harlem

Question: In EU language statistics, what percent of Spain’s population speaks Spanish as a mother tongue?

Answer: 85.6%

Question: What term describes the use of vos instead of tú in young Argentine consumers quizzes?

Answer: Voseo

Question: Which pronoun serves as both formal and informal second-person plural in Hispanic America?

Answer: Ustedes

Question: In northern Spain phonology quizzes, which consonant is pronounced as apico-alveolar [s̺]?

Answer: ⟨s⟩

Question: What Basque substratum feature led to Latin f becoming h in early Spanish?

Answer: Aspiration of /f/

Question: Approximately how many proficient Spanish speakers remain in the Philippines, for demographic trivia?

Answer: 400,000

Question: In what year did Ferdinand Marcos briefly remove and then restore Spanish as an official Philippine language?

Answer: 1973

Question: How many Filipino students studied Spanish in public high schools in 2021–2022?

Answer: Over 7,000

Question: Spanish is an official language of which African Union body besides Equatorial Guinea?

Answer: African Union

Question: What constitutional article requires a Spanish translation of the Philippine Constitution?

Answer: Article XIV

Question: Which regional trade bloc’s creation in the 1990s boosted Spanish teaching in Brazil?

Answer: Mercosur

Question: ¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!) is often said before starting which super fun Spanish trivia quiz?

Answer: Jeopardy-style trivia game

Question: Which sea borders the Canary Islands, featured in world culture quizzes?

Answer: Mediterranean Sea

Question: Spanish is what type of language regarding motion expression for linguistics trivia?

Answer: Verb-framed

Question: What accent pattern distinguishes between qué (question) and que (relative)?

Answer: Interrogative accent

Question: What Spanish orthographic mark indicates a hard g before e or i?

Answer: Diaeresis (ü)

Question: The 13th-century manuscript Cantar de mio Cid records early Spanish culture in which region?

Answer: Castile

Question: Which substratum influence caused Latin f to become Spanish h in many dialects?

Answer: Basque substratum

Question: Which linguistic group’s collapse in the 5th century CE influenced early Spanish evolution?

Answer: Western Roman Empire

Question: Medieval speakers also called early Spanish “Romanz de Castiella” before it became known as Castellano?

Answer: Romanz de Castiella

Question: Spanish ranks third most used on the internet after English and which other language?

Answer: Chinese

Question: What is the title of Spanish national anthem?

Answer: Marcha Real

Question: In Spanish, what does the question “¿Dónde está el error?” mean in English?

Answer: Where is the mistake?

Question: Which Spanish term refers to the set of words in a language and literally means “the vocabulary”?

Answer: El vocabulario

Question: Outside of Spain and Latin America, which country has the largest population of Spanish speakers?

Answer: United States

Question: What is the capital city of Spain?

Answer: Madrid

Question: Which famous unfinished basilica in Barcelona, designed by Antoni Gaudí, is called “La Sagrada Familia”?

Answer: Sagrada Familia

Question: What Spanish greeting means “Happy New Year”?

Answer: ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!