In French the interrogative pronoun qui means who and que means what. There are lots of ways of using qui and que to ask questions and the structures can be a bit tricky. A key underlying rule is “qui + verb” and “que + subject pronoun”. This will play out in the example sentences below.
questions with qui
qui + verb
Here qui is the subject of the sentence and it’s followed directly by a very and object.
- Qui parle français ici? Who speaks French here?
- Qui commande une pizza? Who is ordering a pizza?
qui + est-ce qui
Here qui is the subject. But, its’ followed by with est-ce que. Est-ce que becomes est-ce qui because what follows is a verb. The underlying rule here is qui + verb.
- Qui est-ce qui parle français ici? Who speaks French here?
- Qui est-ce qui veut manger de la glace? Who wants to eat ice cream?
qui + est-ce que
Here qui is the subject again. It’s followed by est-ce que then a subject pronoun. Here the underlying rule is que + subject pronoun.
- Qui est-ce que tu invites? Who are you inviting?
- Qui est-ce que tu appelles? Who are you calling?
In the passé composé:
- Qui est-ce que tu as appelé? Who did you call?
Sometimes verbs can take prepositions.
- À qui est-ce que tu parles? Who are you talking to?
- De qui est-ce tu parles? Who are you talking about?
qui + inversion
Here we’re not using est-ce que but using the more formal inversion style for asking a question. Again, the subject is qui.
- Qui invites-tu? Who are you inviting?
- Qui as-tu invité? Who did you invite?
- Qui préférez-vous? Who do you prefer?
- Qui avez-vous aimé? Who did you like?
When there’s a person involved, e.g. Who did Jean invite?, his or her name follows qui and precedes the inversion.
Qui Jean invite-t-il? Who is Jean inviting?
Qui Jean a-t-il invité? Who did Jean invite?
questions with que
Que means what when it appears at the beginning of a question sentence.
qu’est-ce que/qu’ + personal pronoun + object
This is a very standard and useful way of asking questions in French. The second “que” is que because the underlying rule is que + personal pronoun.
- Qu’est-ce que tu manges? What are you eating?
- Qu’est-ce que tu fais? What are you doing?
- Qu’est-ce que tu as mangé? What did you eat?
- Qu’est-ce que tu as fait? What did you do?
que + verb + subject
Here there is no usage of est-ce que. An example of this kind of question would literally be “What does Jacques” or “What is Jacques doing?”
- Que fait Jacques? What is Jacques doing?
- Que mange Marie? What is Marie eating?
qu’est-ce qui + verb
Where the subject remains que followed by est-ce + qui. Est-ce qui is used rather than est-ce que because the underlying rule is qui + verb.
- Qu’est-ce qui se passe? What’s going on?
- Qu’est-ce qui arrive? What’s happening?
- Qu’est-ce qui ne va pas? What’s wrong?
- Qu’est-ce qui te prend? What’s with you?
- Qu’est-ce qui t’arrive? What’s wrong with you?
In the passe compose:
- Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé? What happened?
Practice Exercises
Related Lessons
- French Question Words
- French Expressions With Qui
- Interrogative Pronoun Lequel
- Direct Object Pronouns
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