Ending questions with a preposition in Spanish
The short explanation: You can't do it.
Longer explanation:
It's very common to end a question with a preposition in English:
1. Who are you talking to?
2. What are you saving for?
3. Where are you coming from?
4. Who are you living with now?
5. Which car are you coming in?
In order to get a grasp on how these questions are worded in Spanish, you need to reword them as shown below:
1. To whom are you talking?
2. For what are you saving?
3. From where are you coming?
4. With whom are you living now?
5. In which car are you coming tonight?
Sounds a bit odd, right? But the second set of questions if perfectly understandable in English and you can use them as a jumping off point into Spanish:
1. ¿Con quién estás hablando? (con quién in Spanish, and not a quién)
2. ¿Para qué estás ahorrando?
3. ¿Desde dónde vienes?
4. ¿Con quién estás viviendo ahora?
5. ¿En qué coche vienes / vendrás esta noche?
This is a problem mainly for English speakers who are starting to learn Spanish. In my teaching experience, the problem takes care of itself quickly since you'll never hear anything like "¿Quién vives con" instead of the correct "¿Con quién vives". As an interesting experiment, try asking a native Spanish speaker "¿Quién vives con" to see what sort of reaction you get.
Brad
