FR: qu'est-ce qui / qu'est-ce que / qui est-ce qui / qui est-ce que

[MiguelHidalgo1986]

Could someone please explain how you can distinguish between "qu'est-ce que" and "qu'est-ce qui". (For example: "qu'est-ce qui te fait mal"/ "qu'est-ce que vous voulez".) I'm not sure when to use which. And what about "qui est-ce qui" and "qui est-ce que"? Cheers!


Moderator note: Multiple threads merged to create this one. This is a confusing topic, in part because it is hard to understand it without considering all four expressions at the same time and also because they look very similar! A summary has been included below. For more details, please read the whole thread.

---

Qui and que may be interrogative pronouns (who? what?) or relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that). The choice between qui and que is however different in each case…

Interrogative pronoun

• For a person: Qui ? ↔ Who? / Whom?
  whether as subject: Qui te regarde ? ↔ Who is watching you?
  or as object: Qui regardes-tu ? ↔ Who[m] are you watching?
• OTHERWISE: Que ? ↔ What?
  whether as subject (rare!): QUE me vaut l'honneur de ta visite ? ↔ To what do I owe the honor of your visit?
  or as object: QUE regardes-tu ? ↔ WHAT are you watching?

Relative pronoun

• As subject: qui ↔ who (never "whom"!) / which / that
  whether for a person: l'ami qui te regarde ↔ the friend who is watching you
  or NOT: le lion QUI te regarde ↔ the lion THAT/WHICH is watching you
• As object: que ↔ who[m] / which / that
  whether for a person: l'ami que je regarde ↔ the friend (who[m]) I'm watching
  or NOT: le lion QUE je regarde ↔ the lion (THAT/WHICH) I'm watching

The most confusing part is that questions are commonly phrased by combining both an interrogative qui/QUE and a relative qui/que!

Qui est-ce qui te regarde ? (= Qui te regarde ?) ↔ Who is watching you?
Qui est-ce que tu regardes ? (= Qui regardes-tu ?) ↔ Who[m] are you watching?
QU'est-ce qui te regarde ? (= Ø {usually no equivalent phrase with subject-verb inversion}) ↔ WHAT is watching you?
QU'est-ce que tu regardes ? (= QUE regardes-tu ?) ↔ WHAT are you watching?

In a nutshell, in an common Qui/Qu'est-ce qui/que question, the former qui or que indicates whether the question is about a person or something else (animal, thing, etc.), respectively, while the latter indicates whether that entity is the subject or object of the question, respectively.

 

[Aupick]

Qu'est-ce qui will be the subject of the sentence
- Qu'est-ce qui te fait mal ? - What hurts you?
[Subject = Qu'est-ce qui/What ; object = te/you]

Qu'est-ce que will be the direct object
- Qu'est-ce que vous voulez ? - What do you want?
[Subject = vous/you; object = Qu'est-ce que/what]

 

[jemappellekelly]

The first que/qui tells you whether the answer to your question will be a person (qui) or an thing (que).
The second que/qui tells you whether the answer to your question will be the subject or the object.

QUI
SUJET: Qui est-ce qui mange? Il mange.
OBJECT: Qui est-ce que vous aimez? J'aime James.

QUE
SUJET: Qu'est-ce qui te fait mal? Mon dos me fait mal.
OBJET: Qu'est-ce que vous voulez? Je veux un chaton.

When it is Qui...qui or Que...que, you can get rid of the est-ce part:
Qui est-ce qui mange? --> Qui mange?
Qu'est-ce que vous voulez? --> Que voulez-vous?

 

[sensa]

What does "qu-est-ce qui?" mean? I thought it would mean "who?" because of the word "wui", but in this sentence, it means "why?":

Qu'est-ce qui vous a retardé?

 

[jierbe31]

I'm afraid you got it all wrong!
Qu'est-ce qui just stands for what.
Qu'est-ce qui vous a retardé ? = What delayed you?
Do not mistake it for Qui est-ce qui, meaning who.
Qui est-ce qui vous a retardé ? = Who delayed you?
Hope it helps.

 

[Kelly B]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I think of this structure as
What is it that (slowed you down?)

 

[juliobenjimino]

try this link http://french.about.com/b/a/015046.htm
it really helped me when I was trying to work out the diff between ce que and ce qui (and ce dont and ce quoi).

Basically-

qu est-ce qui = what (when "what" is the subject ie doing something)
qu est-ce que = what (when "what" is the object)

qu est-ce qui vous derange.... whats bothering you
qu est-ce que tu fais ... what are you doing

bonne chance!

 

[sensa]

What is the difference between qui est-ce qui and qui est-ce que?

My book says in qui est-ce que, the qui is the person and the que is the complement of the verb.

what is a complement du verb?

My book also says "qui est-ce qui" is the subject and "qui est-ce que" is the complement direct but both are under the heading of "personnes"

so, tell me if I have this straight:
qui-est-ce qui est à la porte? sujet-person
qui est-ce que vous avez-vu? objet direct-person


while "qu'est-ce qui" is the subject and "qu'est-ce que" is the complément direct under the heading "choses".

qu'est-ce qui te dérange? sujet-thing
qu'est-ce que tu veux? objet direct- thing
Is qui-est-ce qui just a long way of saying "qui"?

 

[Bisou82]

"qui est-ce qui" is definitely the equivalent of "qui".

"Qui est-ce qui" will be subject since it can be replaced by "qui".

"Qui est-ce que" is complement direct indeed: "qui est-ce que ca dérange?" for example. So: "ca derange qui?". qui is then cpt direct.

 

[timpeac]

"Qui est-ce qui" is the equivalent of "qui" when performing the verb. So

"Qui est à la porte" equals "qui est-ce qui est à la porte".

However, when you are asking "who" is having the verb done to them you have to use the longer form "qui est-ce que" only.

"Qui est-ce que tu as vu à la porte ?" not (in standard grammar) "qui tu as vu à la porte ?".

 

[omahieu]

what is a complement du verb?

It's another term for an object (here direct object, but you can also have À qui est-que tu as prêté ce livre ? although I would prefer À qui as-tu prêté ce livre ?)

We often use the terms COD (complément d'objet direct) or COI (complément d'objet indirect.)

 

[itka]

so, tell me if I have this straight:
qui-est-ce qui est à la porte? sujet-person
qui est-ce que vous avez-vu? objet direct-person

qu'est-ce qui te dérange? sujet-thing
qu'est-ce que tu veux? objet direct- thing

You perfectly got it.

Some examples :

Qui/Qui est-ce qui arrive ? - mon ami arrive. (person, subject = My friend is arriving)
Qui vois-tu ?/Qui est-ce que tu vois ? - Je vois mon ami (person, object = I'm seeing my friend )

Qu'est-ce qui arrive ? - L'autobus arrive (thing, subject = the bus is arriving)

Qu'est-ce que tu vois ? - je vois l'autobus. (thing, object = I'm seeing the bus)

The "long forms" are equivalent of "short forms" but much more used specially in spoken language.

 

[juninho8]

Qu’est-ce que t’inspire leur mauvais début en Ligue des champions?

I came across this sentence in an interview i was reading. I can read it basically says "What do you think of their bad start to the championship?"

But what I don't get is "Qu'est-ce que" is not the subject Qu'est-ce qui would mak more sense so why use inspire and te pronoun?

thanks

 

[Monsieur Hoole]

because the subject of the sentence is leur mauvais début which is causing a certain reaction on the part of the interviewee.

M.H.

 

[sylphid dust]

Hi,

can someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE explain to me IN DETAIL the difference between these two phrases? I have an exam tomorrow and I'm getting tested on this and I am SO confused- my teacher says one is for the subject and one is for the object but that doesn't make it any clearer! I need a very detailed explanation please, with many examples if you can.

thanks,
Sylphid

 

[Gil]

Examples:
Qui est-ce qui te fait pleurer? Ted makes you cry (subject)
Qui est-ce que tu as rencontré? You met Ted (object)
...and Good luck with your exam
Hope this helps

 

[sylphid dust]

no it doesn't really help because if I get fill-in-the-blanks for the exam, I get confused and don't know which one to use- French is not like English where I can easily identify an object or a subject

 

[tilt]

Qui and que are puzzling for English people, because they can be two much different thing in French.

-> When they are interrogative pronouns, the way to use them is qui for people and que for things.
-> In your sentences, they are relative pronouns, that introduce a subordinate clause. The rule to remember is that qui is subject of the subordinate, whereas que is its object. In other words, if the subordinate shows a subject, use que ; and if not, use qui. Now, if you can't identify subjects and objects, I'm not sure we can help you more than this !

 

[pyan]

Here is a link to a site which has a lesson on "qui" and "que": http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa092799.htm

I hope this helps.

If you look up "que qui" in the dictionary you will find a number of old threads.

This forum can't provide lessons for you, which is what you need .

 

[OrelYY]

Examples:
Qui est-ce qui te fait pleurer? Ted makes you cry (subject)
Qui est-ce que tu as rencontré? You met Ted (object)
...and Good luck with your exam
Hope this helps

That really well explained! But some more sentences can help you:

"Qui est-ce qui" always used for the subject
_ Max (subject) a frappé à la porte. Qui est-ce qui a frappé à la porte? (Who knocked at the door?)

"Qui est-ce que" always used for the object
_ Tu as embrassé Elise. Qui est-ce que tu as embrassé? Who did you kiss? You kissed Elise (object)

 

[jann]

"Qui est-ce que" always used for the object
_ Tu as embrassé Elise. Qui est-ce que tu as embrassé? Who Whom did you kiss? You kissed Elise (object)

Exactly, and the "object" status will be even easier to see if you use the (correct but falling out out of use) English object pronoun whom.

get confused and don't know which one to use- French is not like English where I can easily identify an object or a subject

Actually French subjects and objects work much the same as English ones. Regardless of the language, one clue that you will have an object is if you can already find the subject, the part the controls the verb.

Qui est-ce ___ tu as embrassé ?
Who is it ___ you kissed?

The verb = embrasser, "to kiss." We already know who did the kissing (you did), so we have the subject = tu. This means that you aren't going to need a subject because you already have one. Therefore you need an object. And the pronoun for an object is que.
--> Qui est-ce que tu as embrassé ? / Who is it whom you kissed?

Compare to another example:

Qui est-ce ___ a embrassé Elise ?
Who is it ___ kissed Elise?

Again, the verb = embrasser, "to kiss." But this time though we know who got kissed (Elise did, the object), we don't know who did the kissing. So we don't have the subject. Therefore you are going to need the subject pronoun, qui.
--> Qui est-ce qui a embrassé Elise ? / Who is it who kissed Elise?

 

[ngeorgiev]

Qu'est-ce que vous dites ? = What is it that you're saying?
Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? = What is it that's happening?

why in the first sentence is que and in the second qui?

merci

 

[Merpero]

To understand this nGeorgiev, the difference between "qui" and "que", you have to know about the grammatical concept of SUBJECT AND OBJECT. May I ask whether you have come across this concept of subject and object at all, before I (or perhaps somebody else!) decides how to explain it to you?

 

[Merpero]

Firstly, I agree with Kelly B that it really helps to make things clearer if you break down "Qu'est-ce que", or "Qu-est-ce qui" into its constituent parts, that is, "WHAT-IS-IT-THAT?...". That really helped me when I was first learning French.

Secondly, It can be confusing when you're first learning French, because you're told that QUI means WHO. Then, later on, you are told that "qui" doesn't always mean who. It is also sometimes used to mean THAT, as in "Qu'est-ce qui?..."("what-is-it-that..?).

Thirdly, as the others have already explained above:
Que - is used when the "that" part of the phrase is an object/the thing having the verb done to it. Thus, in "Qu'est-ce que vous dîtes", we use que(and not qui), because the "that" that we are asking about is, the thing that you're saying, and the thing that you're saying is an OBJECT because it is having the verb "say"/dîtes" done to it.

Fourthly - Qui- is used when the "that" part of the phrase is a SUBJECT/the thing doing the verb. Thus, in "Qu'est-ce qui se passe?", we use qui(and not que)because the "that" that we are asking about is the thing that is doing the verb. I suppose the subject here is "something", because it is "something" that is "doing" the "happening" (of course, we don't know exactly what that "something" is yet)

 

[ngeorgiev]

heya guys there is something that has been bothering me.

Qui est-ce qui a casse la fenetre?
Qui est-ce que vous avez vu?

I know that we use qui when we have a question directed to the subject and que when have question directed to direct object. It seems to me that in these two questions above both should use qui, no??

merci d'avance

 

[Donaldos]

Why?

Who broke the window? (subject) => Qui est-ce qui ...
Who(m) did you see? (object) => Qui est-ce que ...

 

[sun-and-happiness]

When subject of the sentence, the question form is expressed by qu'est-ce qui:
Délicieux? Qu'est-ce qui est délicieux?

Who, whom...is expressed as follows:
When subject of the sentence, by qui or qui est-ce qui:
Qui est-ce qui a réservé la table?
When object of the sentence, by qui or qui est-ce que:
Qui est-ce que vous avez payé?

Je voudrais savoir si la forme "qu'est-ce qui" est la même chose que "qui est-ce qui" et si est utilisé la forme abrégée pour la reconnaître. Merci beaucoup d'avance.

 

[itka]

"qu'est-ce qui" ==> the answer is a thing (*que / quoi est-ce qui...)
"qui est-ce qui" ==> the answer is a person (never shortened)

 

[Krom le Barbare]

Exact.
Mais dans les livres, tu trouveras le plus souvent la question sous la forme "Qui avez-vous payé ?", qui est (théoriquement) plus correcte.
La forme "Qui est-ce que vous avez payé ?" appartient au langage parlé, même si tu peux tout à fait l'écrire.

 

[oxcigene]

Please help me understanding these two words ("qu'est que" and "qu'est qui") correctly and completely. Though i could understand, i am not able to use them correctly?

What is their exact meaning and when to use them.

For example, i came across this sentence:

Japan:un an après le séisme, qu'est-ce qui a changé ?

What is the literal translation in english?

 

[paysage]

qu'est-ce que/qui = what

Qu'est-ce qui se passe? What's going on?
Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas? What's wrong?
Qu'est-ce que tu fais? What are you doing?
Qu'est-ce qui a changé? What has changed?

 

[snarkhunter]

Basically, you need to understand that "qui" is related to the subject of the coming verb, whereas "que" is related to an object.

 

[oxcigene]

Thanks snarkhunter.
That's a helpful tip.
I have some clarity now.

 

[paysage]

oui mais cela ne marche pas avec la tournure "qu'est-ce que/qui"

 

[snarkhunter]

oui mais cela ne marche pas avec la tournure "qu'est-ce que/qui"

... Mais bien sûr que si, voyons !

"Qu'est-ce que... ?" : "que" est complément (d'un verbe qui est exprimé ensuite)

"Qu'est-ce qui... ?" : "qui" est le sujet du verbe à venir

... C.Q.F.D. !

 

[atcheque]

Oui,

"Qu'est-ce que tu vois ? un lampadaire
"Qu'est-ce qui éclaire la rue ? un lampadaire.

 

[persona67]

Mais attention ! Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ( et non qu'est-ce qui se passe).

 

[hydras15]

I'm having a really hard time understanding when to use each. I know that Qui refers to a person, and that Que refers to a thing, but when do you use the endings of these questions? I have a native french speaker as a teacher, and she doesn't know how to explain it to me, it seems like. She grasps for how to explain it in English, and my book isn't very clear either.

 

[J.F. de TROYES]

In the common usage qui... ? is replaced by the phrase qui est-ce qui ... ? when the interrogative pronoun is a subject and by qui est-ce que ... ? when the interrogative is an object :

Referring to a person : Qui / Qui est-ce qui téléphone ? ( subject ) Qui attends-tu ? / Qui est-ce que tu attends ?


Referring to a thing : Que is replaced by the phrase by qu'est-ce que... ? :

Qu'est-ce que tu comptes faire ? / Que comptes-tu faire ? ( or even : Tu comptes faire quoi ? )

Qu'est-ce qui is used only to refer to an impersonal subject :

Qu'est-ce qui est arrivé ? ( il est arrivé un accident ) ; Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas ? - Mais ça va bien !
Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? = Que se passe-t-il ?

These pronominal forms take the place of the impersonal forms il or ça : Il ne s'est rien passé ; ça se passe bien.

Hope it helps.

 

[Oddmania]

Hi,

I see where your confusion comes from (it's hardly surprising). The thing is, the first Qui.../Que... and the last ...qui/...que stand for different things.

* The first ones refer to the "gender" of the noun (is it a person or a thing?), so it should be Qui est-ce... with people and Qu'est-ce... with things.
.
* The last ones refer to the function of the noun (is a subject or a complement of a verb?), so it should be ...est-ce qui with a subject and ...est-ce que with
...a complement. For instance:

Qui est-ce qui fait X ? → Who is doing X?
The first qui implies you're talking about a person ("who") while the second qui implies it performs the action of the verb: this person is doing X (Who is doing X? "WHO" is).

Qui est-ce que tu as vu ? → Whom or Who did you see?
The qui implies you're talking about a person ("who" or "whom") while the que implies it is the complement of the verb to see: you saw someone. Note that the English language requires (theoretically, in formal contexts) two different words too: Who = Qui + qui while Whom = Qui + que.

Qu'est-ce qui marche ? → What is working?
The que implies you're talking about a thing ("what") while the qui implies it performs the action of the verb: the thing is working (What is working? "WHAT" is).

Qu'est-ce que tu as vu ? → What did you see?
The first que implies you're talking about a thing ("what") while the second que implies it is the complement of the verb to see: you saw something.

 

[Nino83]

For persons:
subject: qui/qui est-ce qui --> Qui téléphone? Qui est-qui téléphone? --> Who is calling?
direct object: qui/qui est-ce que --> Qui as-tu vu? Qui est-ce que tu as vu? --> Who did you see?
prepositional object: qui/qui est-ce que --> À qui penses-tu? À qui est-ce que tu penses? --> Who(m) are you thinking about?

For things:
subject: qu'est-ce que --> Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe? --> What's happening?
direct object: que/qu'est-ce que --> Que as-tu vu? Qu'est-ce que tu as vu? --> What did you see?
prepositional: quoi/quoi est-ce que --> À quoi penses-tu? À quoi est-ce que tu penses? --> What are you thinking about?

Hope it helps

 

[lebanna]

Ma réponse est pour TROYES, ODDMANIA. MAIS SURTOUT NINO83;

Comme Hydras, j'ai trouvé ce sujet très difficile à comprendre. Après avoir serré lu les premier deux réponses à Hydras, je commence à comprendre, mais quand j'ai lu ta réponse j'ai trouvé une irrégularité. Ci-dessus tu as dit For things: qu'est-ce que, e.g. Qu'est-ce qu'il se passé? J'ai compris que pour le sujet, on doit écrire qui à la fin, pas qu... Est-ce que tu peux me dire si c'est correct? Si tu es d'accord, peut-être c'est un petit signe que finalement je comprends plus.

Merci Troyes, Oddmania et Nino83, lebanna

 

[Oddmania]

Comme Hydras, j'ai trouvé ce sujet très difficile à comprendre. Après avoir serré lu les premier deux réponses à Hydras, je commence à comprendre, mais quand j'ai lu ta réponse j'ai trouvé une irrégularité. Ci-dessus tu as dit For things: qu'est-ce que, e.g. Qu'est-ce qu'il se passé? J'ai compris que pour le sujet, on doit écrire qui à la fin, pas qu... Est-ce que tu peux me dire si c'est correct? Si tu es d'accord, peut-être c'est un petit signe que finalement je comprends plus.

You're right, that's because impersonal verbs are sort of exceptions. You can write qui se passe or qu'il se passe indifferently. Here's what I've found on the web:

* When the verb is always impersonal (such as falloir for example), only qu'il is correct. Thus, you need to write Qu'est-ce qu'il faut...? instead of Qu'est-ce qui faut...?
* When the verb is being impersonal but can be "personal" in other contexts (such as se passer), then you can write both.

When you say Qu'est-ce qu'il/qui se passe? ("What's going on?"), the verb is being used impersonally, but it can be used like any other verb if you say Tout se passe comme prévu ("Everything is going as planned"), with tout as the subject. Thus, both ways are possible according to the rule.

 

[Nino83]

It's true that it is an exception, but in interrogative sentences it's usual to use qu'est-ce as subject with impersonal verbs.
The other use I know is with verbs which take the dative construction, like faire mal, plaisir.
For example: Qu'est-ce qui te fait mal? or Qu'est-ce qui te plaît?

Oddmania, est-ce que vous connaissez autres cas où est obligatoire employer qu'est-ce qui?

Merci

 

[JimiBlue]

Can: Qui est-ce qui êtes-vous (the long form of Qui êtes-vous) be considered grammatically correct? I tried googling this phrase, but it doesn't show up. I assume it's just never used if it is correct.

Est la phrase "Qui est-ce qui êtes-vous?" grammaticalement correcte? J'ai essayé de la rechercher sur google mais sans résultat. Si c'est correct, je présume qu'elle n'est jamais utilisée.

 

[Kelly B]

Nope, if you wanted a phrase with this type of structure it would be qui est-ce que vous êtes ? It's pretty rare, though, I think.
Who is it that you are? i.e. Who is [this person] that you are? where this person is a direct object - so it's an interrogative form of you are this person, more or less.

 

[Maître Capello]

Qui est-ce qui êtes-vous ? (A verb can have only one subject but here you used two, namely the relative pronoun qui [which is always a subject, never an object] and vous.)
Qui est-ce que vous êtes ? (correct, not the most natural way to put it, but not that uncommon either)
Qui êtes-vous ? (Note: here qui is an interrogative predicative pronoun.)

 

[Oddmania]

J'ai eu la même impression que Kelly. Je ne me souviens pas avoir jamais entendu "Qui est-ce que vous êtes ?" et cette tournure ne me viendrait jamais à l'esprit. En revanche, "Qu'est-ce que vous êtes ?" (= What are you?) ne m'interpelle pas plus que ça, et ça s'entend souvent dans les films fantastiques ou de science-fiction.

 

[FreddieFirebird]

I think I understand the difference between qui est-ce que and qui est-ce qui...

If I want to say "Whom do you find pretty", can I then say "Qui est-ce que tu trouves belle?"
Qui, because I need a person, and que because that person is the object (the person whom you find pretty).

Qui est-ce qui est belle = who is pretty. Qui for a person, 2nd qui for the subject (that person herself is beautiful)

 

[Oddmania]

Yes, that's correct