Questions: Que ... = What ... ?

Hi M,

Without the context it is hard to tell but I suspect based on the lesson content that it would be something like:

"Que veut Paul?" ("What does Paul want?")

You could say, "Paul veut quoi?"( in spoken French) but never at the begining of the sentence.

Normally you will hear Quoi ? , used in a single word as the interrogative pronoun What? (as in 'Pardon?')

In French you will say Quoi? or more politely Comment?

It is used also in some idiomatic expressions like:

Quoi de neuf? = Wha'ts new?

À quoi bon ...? = What's the point...?

Il n'y a pas de quoi = Don't mention it

Hope this helps!

 

Qui is used when "who" is the subject of the clause ans que for when "who" is the direct object. Tu elucidate:

Tu connais le mec qui parle à ma sœur? -- Do you know the guy who is talking to my sister. Here the guy is doing the talking, so qui, referring to the guy, is the subject. 

Tu connais le mec, que ma sœur a rencontré hier? -- Do you know the guy who(m) my sister met yesterday? Here the guy is being bet by my sister. Hence my sister is the subject and the guy the direct object to which que refers. 

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Hi Rebecca,

It is the other way round.

I know that is is tempting for an English student to want to prefer the inversion as it is used in English. However in French out of the three ways of forming questions, it will be the  least favoured particularly in simple questions as it sounds not only formal but pompous.

But we have to teach it...

Hope this helps!

 

Gotcha. So to clarify:

Qu'est-ce que vous aimez? - formal, but overly so and thus not preferred - maybe antiquated?

Qu'aimez vous? - appropriately formal, sounds current and natural

and of course the 'tu' forms are just informal.

Have I got that right?

Hi Rebecca,

'Quest-ce-que vous aimez?' is more informal and colloquial than the inversion of the subject and verb in 'Qu'aimez-vous?'.

In spoken French you will hear an awful lot of 'est-ce-que' for asking questions so you have to be able to recognise it and preferably use when appropriate.

In written French , the inversion will be preferred as more formal. It is not antiquated just more formal.

Hope this helps!

 

In French, like in all languages, there are different ways to say the same thing, depending on the setting in which you find yourself. For example, when talking to your brother you would say, "Hi, what's up, bro! It's awesome you came to visit me!" To express the same intention but toward the President of the US, you would formulate it differently: "Good morning, Mr. President" I am certainly delighted you could come and visit me!"

The same holds true in French. Usually, the inverted form of formulating a question is considered more formal:

Comment-appelez-vous? -- What is your name? (formal register)
Tu t'appelles comment? -- What is your name? (familar register)

Here is a more in-depth link to an article discussing registers in the French language: https://www.thoughtco.com/french-register-1369374

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Thanks Chris, I had thought of 'elegant' and 'formal' as being quite different in meaning but I now see, in this context, that they have a similar meaning.

Bonjour Héctor !

Thanks for this suggestion, I've now added examples to the lesson as well as explanations.

I hope that's helpful!

Bonjour Judy !

First of all, remember that "ce que" is never used to ASK a question, so no ambiguity there :)
As for the difference of usage between "que" and "ce que" when they introduce a clause in a sentence, here is the link to a lesson which should clarify that point for you:
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/ce-que-what-which-relative-pronouns

I hope that's helpful!

Bonjour Chris !

The answer is simple: you cannot never contract qui into qu', as it ends in 'i' and not 'e'.

I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !

Bonjour, sometimes they write " si l'on ferait cela?" why there's the letter "L" between the si et on? thanks in advance.

I thinks it's because the 'le' (equivalent of 'it') is contracted to l' in front of a vowel
so the sentence without the contractions would be: si le on ferait cela?