Question Words - Qui, Que, Quoi

At its core, this is about distinguishing between people and objects.

• Use qui when you are asking about a person.
• Use que or quoi when you are asking about a thing or an idea.

The real trick is where they sit in the sentence. Qui is very stable. It almost always stays as qui. Que is a bit of a chameleon. It changes to quoi depending on where it sits. It also changes to qu' before a vowel. Imagine que is the shy version that stays at the front. Quoi is the loud version that hangs out at the end or after a preposition. Yes, even native speakers get these mixed up when they are tired! Think of it like a grammar traffic light. Green means go with qui for people. Yellow means watch out for the position of que and quoi for things.

1. 1There are three main ways to build these questions. You can choose based on how formal you want to be.
2. 2The "Est-ce que" Method (Standard)
3. 3Put the question word at the very beginning.
4. 4Add est-ce que right after it.
5. 5Finish with your subject and verb.
6. 6Example: Qui est-ce que tu vois ? (Who do you see?)
7. 7The Inversion Method (Formal)
8. 8Put the question word at the beginning.
9. 9Swap the subject and the verb.
10. 10Connect them with a hyphen.
11. 11Example: Que fais-tu ? (What are you doing?)
12. 12The Casual Method (Informal)
13. 13Keep the sentence like a normal statement.
14. 14Put the question word at the end.
15. 15Note: Que becomes quoi here!
16. 16Example: Tu fais quoi ? (You're doing what?)

You will use these patterns every single day.

• When you are at a job interview: Que savez-vous de notre entreprise ? (What do you know about our company?)
• When you are meeting someone new: Qui est ton acteur préféré ? (Who is your favorite actor?)
• When you are lost in Paris: C'est quoi, cette rue ? (What is this street?)

Qui works as both a subject (the person doing the action) and an object (the person receiving the action). This makes it very versatile. Que and quoi are almost always objects. Use them when you want to know about actions, objects, or concepts. If you're wondering what that weird smell in the fridge is, C'est quoi cette odeur ? is your best friend.

Don't use que at the end of a sentence. It sounds unfinished. It's like saying "What do you..." and then walking away. If you want the "what" at the end, it must be quoi.

Also, be careful not to confuse these with relative pronouns. In the sentence "The man who is tall," the "who" is a connector, not a question. We are focusing strictly on asking questions here.

Another trap is using quel. Use quel when you have a choice of specific items (Which one?). Use que/quoi for general "what" questions. If you ask Quel fais-tu ?, a French person might look at you like you just asked them to eat a shoe. Stick to Que fais-tu ? for general activities.

• Mistake 1: Using que at the end.
• ✗ Tu manges que ? (Wrong)
• ✓ Tu manges quoi ? (Correct)

• Mistake 2: Forgetting the apostrophe before a vowel.
• ✗ Que est-ce que c'est ? (Wrong)
• ✓ Qu'est-ce que c'est ? (Correct)

• Mistake 3: Mixing up qui and que for people.
• ✗ Que est là ? (Wrong - unless a ghost-thing is there!)
• ✓ Qui est là ? (Correct - asking who is there)

Native speakers might drop the ne in casual speech, but they rarely mess up the que/quoi distinction. It's one of those things that marks you as a true student of the language. Just remember: quoi loves prepositions (avec, de, pour) and the end of the line.

Qui vs Quel

Qui asks about a person's identity. Quel asks you to pick from a group.

• Qui est ton prof ? (Who is your teacher?)
• Quel prof as-tu ? (Which teacher do you have?)

Que vs Qu'est-ce qui

This is the boss level of French questions.

• Qu'est-ce que... asks about the object (What are you eating?).
• Qu'est-ce qui... asks about the subject (What is happening?).

Notice the qui at the end of the second one? That's because the "what" is the thing doing the action. It's like a grammar secret agent.