Question Words

Qui - (who)

Pronunciation: Ki (like “key”)

When it comes to putting questions together, qui is what’s called an interrogative pronoun meaning who or whom. It can also be used to follow the prepositions avec, pour, à, and de in a question.

Qui sera là ? – Who will be there?

Avec qui va-t-il à Paris ? – Who is he going to Paris with?

Que (what)

Pronunciation: Keuh (“euh” like the u in “murder” if you stopped before the r)

Que is another interrogative pronoun, but instead of standing in (typically) for a person, it stands in for an object. We use it just like we use “what” in English. It’s also used to mean “what” in the common interrogative phrase qu’est que (and similar question forms), which we’ll cover in the next section.

Worth noting: While the other French question words don’t contract, que always contracts to qu’ when paired with a word that starts with a vowel. For that reason, with certain verbs, it simply sounds more natural to use qu’est-ce que rather than que on its own. Qu’est-ce que is also much less formal than the inversion, no matter what letter the verb starts with, so it’s often preferable!

Que fais-tu ? – What are you doing?

Qu’est-ce que c’est ? – What is it?

Qu’est-ce qu’il écrit ? – What is he writing?

Quoi (what)

Pronunciation: Kwah

Quoi is basically a form of que – it means “what” – but it’s used after a preposition or when put at the end of a sentence to ask a casual question. When used as an interrogative pronoun, que usually appears at the beginning of questions, while quoi is usually used anywhere else in the sentence (except in slangy phrases like quoi de neuf?).

C’est quoi ? – What is it?

À quoi penses-tu ? – What are you thinking about? (formal)

Tu penses à quoi ? – What are you thinking about? (informal)

Quoi de neuf ? – What’s new?

Où (where)

Pronunciation: Ooh

Où is, simply enough, the French word for “where”, indicating place. You can use it at the beginning or the end of a question. It can also be used outside of questions to simply say “where,” as in, “the street where I live” – la rue où j’habite.

Où est ta voiture ? – Where is your car?

Où est-ce qu’ils mangent ? – Where do they eat?

Le restaurant se trouve où ? – Where is the restaurant? (formal)

Il est où le restaurant ? – Where is the restaurant? (informal)

Quand (when)

Pronunciation: Kahn (just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Quand is used to say “when” in French. It can be used, like où, to form a question or to say the word “when” in a sentence. As with all other question words, it can be (and frequently is) paired with est-ce que.

Quand partez-vous ? – When do you (all) leave?

Quand est-ce qu’elle arrive ? – When does she arrive?

Pourquoi (why)

Pronunciation: Poor-kwah (por as in “to pour water”)

Pourquoi is the French word for why, used to ask about cause or reason. Outside of a question, it also means “why,” as in, “tell me why you came here” – dis-moi pourquoi tu es venu ici.

Pourquoi as-tu apporté un parapluie ? – Why did you bring an umbrella?

Pourquoi est-ce qu’elle rit ? – Why is she laughing?

Comment (how)

Pronunciation: Kum-ahn (“um” as in “umbrella,” “ahn” just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Comment is French for “how”, meaning it can ask about method and means or status – for example, “how is the baby?” (status), or “how did the cow end up on the roof?” (method/means).

Comment ça va ? – How are you?

Comment est-ce que cette pizza est arrivée ici ? – How did this pizza get here?

Combien (how much/how many)

Pronunciation: Com-bee-en (“com” as in “communicate”, “en” as in “enter,” but just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Combien is used in French to ask both “how much” and “how many”. Importantly, when combien is used before a noun, it is always paired with de.

Combien coûte la jupe ? – How much does the skirt cost?

Combien de personnes viennent ? – How many people are coming?

Quel/quels/quelle/quelles (who/which)

Pronunciation: Kell

When we want to ask which of something, broadly, we use quel. This breaks down as quel form masculine singular nouns, quels for masculine plural (or plural mixed gender) nouns, quelle for feminine singular nouns, and quelles for feminine plural nouns. This is different from lequel and laquelle in that it’s less specific/immediate – lequel is used to look at a group of something and say “which one (of these)”, while quel is “which” more broadly.

Quelles chaussettes aimez-vous ? – Which socks do you like?

Tu as acheté quel chapeau ? – Which hat did you buy?

Quels fromages est-ce que vous aimez ? – Which cheeses do you (all) like?

Ce/cet/cette/ces (This/that/these/those)

Pronunciation: Cuh/Set/Say

When we want to say this, broadly, we use ce. This breaks down as ce form masculine singular nouns, ces for plural nouns, cette for feminine singular nouns, and cet for masculine nouns that start with a vowel (a, e, i ,o ,u, and h).

Quels fromages est-ce que vous aimez ? Ces fromages! - Which cheeses do you (all) like? These/Those cheeses!