![]() Que mangent les ratons laveurs ? – What do raccoons eat?.Que faites-vous après l’école ? – What are you doing after school?.The meaning remains the same, and English translation is generally identical. To give an idea of when to use que vs quoi, we’ll use the same example sentences here as we used in the first part of the previous sectoin on using quoi. ![]() This sentence structure is more formal than the one we saw above where we need to use quoi after the action verb. We always use que as the French word for what when it’s the first word of a question sentence. On part ou quoi ? – Are we leaving or what?.It can also be used to express impatience just like in English. Quoi !? Comment a-t-il pu rater ce but? – What!? How did he manage to miss that goal?.Quoi !? C’est incroyable! – What!? That’s unbelievable!.Quoi is also used on its own as an exclamation to express surprise or disbelief, just like in English. – What? Can you please repeat what you just said? Quoi ? Peux-tu répéter ce que tu viens de dire, s’il te plaît.Quoi is used as a stand-alone question when you don’t understand, or when you didn’t hear and need something repeated. Tu penses à quoi ? – What are you thinking of? – What are you thinking about?.Normalement, tu vas à la plage avec quoi ? – What do you normally go to the beach with?.Quoi is the French word for what when it’s the indirect object after a preposition: Ils annoncent quoi cette fois-ci ? – What are they announcing this time?.Tu as fais quoi avec mes vinyles ? – What did you do with my records?.Les ratons laveurs mangent quoi ? – What do raccoons eat?.Vous faites quoi après l’école ? – What are you doing after school?.This structure is less formal than the equivalent using que, which we’ll see in the next section. We need to use quoi in French when the sentence structure puts what after the action verb as a direct object. We’ll mention these uses below when we introduce quel and comment. In addition, a couple of other question words are sometimes translated as what in English, though this isn’t their main meaning. We’ll go into each one individually here. How do you say what in French? We actually have two distinct words that both usually translate as what in French, each used in different contexts: quoi and que. ![]() Il va au concert avec qui ? – With whom is he going to the concert?.Pour qui est-ce qu’elle achète le cadeau ? – Who is she buying the gift for?.De qui pensez-vous ? – Who are you thinking of? – Who are you thinking about?.À qui est-ce que tu parles ? – To whom are you speaking? – Who are you talking to?.The following prepositions are frequently used with the French question word qui: à qui Avec qui vas-tu à la fête? – Tu vas à la fête avec qui ? – With whom are you going to the party? – Who are you going to the party with?.De qui parlez-vous? – Vous parlez de qui ? – About whom are you speaking? – Who are you speaking about?.Whereas in English you commonly revert to using who when the interrogative is separated from the preposition, in French the two always stick together. In this case the questions are aimed at direct or indirect objects of the sentence, so technically this use of qui is equivalent to whom in French. Qui is frequently used together with French prepositions to ask questions from a different angle, just as in English. Qui est-ce que tu vois ? – Who do you see?.Qui sont ces trois belles femmes avec ton frère ? – Who are these three pretty women with your brother?.Qui a mangé toute la glace ? – Who ate all the ice cream?.In general, qui in this case is considered singular, unless the question clearly asks about multiple people. Qui acts as an interrogative pronoun, whether in the place of the subject or the object in a sentence. Tu attends qui ? – Who are you waiting for?.It’s often the first word in a question, but can also appear elsewhere in the sentence. The French question word qui is used to ask who or whom in French, and is used in many common French expressions. First, let’s just start off with this list of French interrogatives: Common French interrogatives French interrogatives In this post we’ll go through these common French question words, providing explanations and examples for each one. Many of these words act as the subject of their sentences, so they can be considered interrogative pronouns, or pronoms interrogatifs. In general, each of these corresponds to their equivalent French question words, or mots interrogatifs. ![]() The majority of English question words begin with the letters wh-, such as who, what, when, where, why, and which. We use French question words, or interrogatives, to specify the type of information we’re requesting, just as you do in English. ![]()
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