williamylee

[potent mason]

Please be patient

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[brave quiver]

Quoi que => whatever
E.g. "quoi qu'elle fasse" => whatever she does

Quel(le) que => whichever/whatever
E.g. "quel que soit le problème" => whatever the problem may be

Bien que => even though
E.g. Bien qu'il soit beau, je ne l'aime pas => Even though it's pretty, I don't like it

[bleak sparrow]

So the difference btw quoi que vs quel(le) que is grammatical? in that quoi (que) refers to the object and quel(le) (que) refers to the subject in the subordinate clause?

[brave quiver]

"Quoi que" is basically the equivalent of "Quelle que soit la chose que" or "Peu importe ce que"

Quel(le) que is mostly just used with être

But yeah as far as I can think of, quoi que would be an object and quel que would be a subject.. I think quel que can also be an object though?

[bleak sparrow]

I have not seen "Quelle que soit la chose que" before, but "Peu importe ce que" seems always followed by a clause that's missing the object

[bleak sparrow]

can you say "quel que ce soit"?

[brave quiver]

Yes

[bleak sparrow]

Then i guess yes it can refer to an object as well...

[brave quiver]

Technically it's always an object I guess

Cuz of the "que"

But it sorta functions subject-y sometimes

[bleak sparrow]

But in "quelle que soit la situation", is "quel que" replacing the subject or object?

[brave quiver]

It's the thing that the situation is being

So technically the object

[bleak sparrow]

ahhh... so it's actually inverted? I mean if it's regular word order it'd be "quelle que la situation soit"

[brave quiver]

Afaik you can't write it that way but yeah

[bleak sparrow]

some sort of mandatory inversion i guess 😅

[brave quiver]

La situation est x
Quelle que soit la situation

[bleak sparrow]

makes sense

[brave quiver]

"que" is always an object unless it's a question word

[bleak sparrow]

Can you remind me again when can "que" be a subject?

Qu'est ce que ... is also asking the object, right

[brave quiver]

Qu'est-ce qui
Here it's a subject, cuz of the "qui"

First que/qui is a question word, second is a relative pronoun (object v. subject)

[bleak sparrow]

Right, but here "que" is just syntactical, where qui is the real question word

[brave quiver]

No

Other way around

[bleak sparrow]

I mean, word by word "qu'est-ce qui" = "what is it that (verb.) ...", so que is referring to the "it" (the abstract object), where "qui ..." is the actual subject

[brave quiver]

The que is the "what" (question word), while the "qui" indicates you're referring to a subject

[bleak sparrow]

Right, but the whole sentence can just be replaced by "Qui ... ?"

[brave quiver]

No

That would be "who"

Qui as a question word refers to humans only (potentially other animates, but never inanimates)

[bleak sparrow]

So qui as a question word can only refer to "who" (a person), not a grammatical subject?

ok

[brave quiver]

Yes

[bleak sparrow]

Ok that makes sense... otherwise the "qu'est ce qui" construct wouldn't be necessary

[brave quiver]

Question word:
Que => inanimate (possible non-human animate)
Qui => animate (mainly human)

Relative pronoun:
Que => object
Qui => subject

[bleak sparrow]

That makes a lot of sense. I guess I was confused by qui and que serving both as question words and relative pronouns

[brave quiver]

Ye it's a common confusion

The qu'est-ce qui format helps

Qu'est-ce que tu veux => What do you want
Qu'est-ce qui te veux => What wants you
Qui est-ce que tu veux => Who do you want
Qui est-ce qui te veux => Who wants you

[bleak sparrow]

Thanks for the explanations, that clears up a lot of things.