Published June 9, 2022 · Updated April 30, 2026 — By French teacher David Issokson • Native Audio by Marie Assel Cambier
Quoi means “what” in French. Learning how and when to use this word can be confusing for many students. This post explains how to use quoi in the context of “what” and as a common filler word — all with native audio examples.
📘 Quoi meaning
Quoi means “what” in French and is commonly used in informal questions, such as “Tu fais quoi ?” (What are you doing?). It can also be used alone to mean “what?” when expressing confusion, and as a filler word similar to “like” in spoken English. You will also see quoi in expressions such as “Quoi de neuf ?” (What’s new?) or “Il n’y a pas de quoi” (Don’t mention it).
🎧 Quoi pronunciation
The pronunciation of quoi is /kwa/ (IPA), which sounds roughly like “kwah”.
📝 Quoi examples
1) Using quoi to mean “what”
The most basic meaning of quoi is “what”. Rather than asking, “Qu’est-ce que c’est ?“, “C’est quoi ?” is much less formal for “What is it?”
C’est quoi ?
What is it?
Here, rather than asking “Qu’est-ce que + subject + verb ?“, “Subject + verb + quoi ?” is much less formal.
Tu manges quoi ?
What are you eating?
Tu fais quoi samedi ?
What are you doing on Saturday?
By using quoi, it’s almost like you’re saying, “You’re verb+ing what!?!”. The word quoi is used to express an element of surprise.
Vous dites quoi ?
What are you saying?
2) Saying “what?” (expressing confusion)
Another common usage of quoi is simply to ask “what?” When you haven’t understood what’s being said. In this context, the word “comment?” to indicate “what” is much more polite. For example:
Quoi ? Je n’ai pas compris.
What? I didn’t understand. (much less formal)
3) Using quoi as a filler word
In spoken French, the word quoi can be used as a filler word, much like “like” in English. In this context, quoi also loosely translates to “kind of” or “in short”.
C’était un bon film, quoi.
It was kind of a good movie.
J’avais envie d’y aller, quoi.
I kind of wanted to go.
4) “What to + verb” with quoi
The word quoi is also used to mean what in the context of “I don’t know what to + verb”.
Je ne sais pas quoi dire.
I don’t know what to say.
Asking questions in French can be quite tricky. There are multiple methods, including inversion: “Que mange-t-il ?” (What is he eating?).
👉 Master asking questions in French (great audio lesson!)
💡 Advanced uses of quoi
✅ In more advanced French, quoi often appears after prepositions and in certain relative structures.
After prepositions, quoi means “what” and follows words like avec (with), sur (on), and pour (for):
Avec quoi est-ce que tu écris ?
What are you writing with?
Sur quoi est-ce que tu écris ?
What are you writing on?
✅ This same structure appears in pourquoi (why), which literally means “for what”.
Pourquoi est-ce que vous étudiez le français ?
Why are you studying French?
✅ You will also see quoi in more formal constructions such as the indefinite relative pronoun ce à quoi, used after verbs that take à:
Je ne sais pas ce à quoi il pense.
I don’t know what he is thinking about.
On ne sait pas ce à quoi il s’attend.
We don’t know what he is expecting.
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🔗 Related words and expressions
- qu’est-ce que — what (neutral, standard question form)
- que — what (used before verbs, more formal)
- n’importe quoi — nonsense / anything
- Il n’y a pas de quoi — don’t mention it
- Quoi de neuf ? – What’s new?
- Quoi qu’il en soit — regardless
- Je ne sais quoi — a special something
- Il n’y pas de quoi fouetter un chat — nothing to get worked up about
- quoique — even though, although
- comment ? — what? (polite way to ask for repetition)
📚 Related lessons
👉 “What” in French »
👉 Que meaning and examples »
👉 French filler words »
👉 Asking questions »
👉 Balance ton quoi (song by Angèle) »
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