#tani_boy

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

proud sparrowBOT
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wary steppe
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Tani, I am not gonna give you the answer

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Please have a think on how to say "What is this" in French :)

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You got this, (hint: its a little long)

real peak
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Qu'est-ce qu'elle?

wary steppe
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You're close but we wouldn't formulate it that way

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It is "qu'est-ce que c'est"

real peak
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But I have been taught that we can replace "Qu'est-ce que" with just "Que" and use inversion

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nvm ig its an adverb

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so we cant change it

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right?

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Il est minuit.
In this will we use comment to replace minuit or something else?

wary steppe
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I'm not 100% sure about qu'est-ce qu'elle in this way. but to ask what is this (thing) would be qu'ect-ce que c'est

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espesially with "C'est une belle peinture

real peak
real peak
wary steppe
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and how one asks about time in french

real peak
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minuit is?

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I thought minuit was something else

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I thought it was tiny or something

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nvm

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If it is time then ig the sentence will be
Quand a la heure?

wary steppe
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Il est minuit = It is midnight

wary steppe
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it is not quand à la heure

real peak
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Quelle heure sry

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Quelle heure est-il

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quand is when

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yea

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thanks

timid arrow
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Quelle heure*

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Heure is fém

wary steppe
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you are correct

silent sail
crimson dirge
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Reading this conversation, I’m wondering… is « Que est-elle » actually wrong, or just overly formal?

silent sail
crimson dirge
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OK, thanks!

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Would « qu’est-il » be any better?

silent sail
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Probably but it’s going to be really formal

crimson dirge
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ah

silent sail
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The only context I can see « qu’est-il » is as part of a compound like « Qu’est-il arrivé ? (What has happened?) »

crimson dirge
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hmm

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That would be a set expression, right

silent sail
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Yeah and even then it’s okay because « il » there is impersonal

crimson dirge
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ah

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whereas « Qu’est-ce qu’arrivé » would mean, literally, ‘What has arrived?’

silent sail
crimson dirge
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ah

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…I thought qui meant ‘who’?

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or am I getting confused?

silent sail
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So the que/qui here is closer to the relative pronoun than the question word

crimson dirge
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ah

silent sail
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Where « que » acts as an object and « qui » acts as a subject

crimson dirge
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ah-ha, right

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So, when using qu’est-ce, there is effectively no difference between ‘who’ and ‘what’?

silent sail
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L’homme qui est arrivé est mon professeur
(L’homme = qui, subject)

L’homme que je connais est mon professeur
(L’homme = que, object)

crimson dirge
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yes, I understood that

silent sail
crimson dirge
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ah

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So, « Qui est-ce qui est arrivé? »

silent sail
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Yup

crimson dirge
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OK

silent sail
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Though I think just « Qui » is better since it’s kinda redundant

crimson dirge
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hmm

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I thought qui est-ce would be more colloquial?

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(aargh, typos…!)

silent sail
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I suppose so but I rarely see it anyway

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« est-ce que/qui » is neutral though so it’s not colloquial

crimson dirge
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hmm

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I thought that was just for polar questions?

silent sail
crimson dirge
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yes/no questions

silent sail
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I mean so does inversion

crimson dirge
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I thought that if you want to use est-ce with a content question, you need to put the question word before it

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qu’est-ce or qui est-ce or où est-ce, etc.

silent sail
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For question words, « est-ce que/qui » allows you to skip inversion

crimson dirge
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hmm

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OK

silent sail
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Inversion is a hassle since you can’t invert nouns

crimson dirge
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I do understand that

silent sail
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Plus the occasional -t- in the third person singular present

crimson dirge
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yep

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But my confusion was about the correct use of est-ce que

silent sail
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In general, inversion for formal, est-ce que for neutral, intonation for informal

crimson dirge
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For yes/no questions, yes

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but I was asking about content questions

silent sail
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Same thing

crimson dirge
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ah

silent sail
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Formal: Pourquoi Lena a-t-elle pris son sac ?
Neutral: Pourquoi est-ce que Lena a pris son sac ?
Informal: Lena a pris son sac pourquoi ?

crimson dirge
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ah

silent sail
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Try opening up a channel on conversational French, like erm Easy French

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I can count on my hands the amount of someone uses inversion

crimson dirge
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Sure, but I’m not asking about inversions

silent sail
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It’s either est-ce que or intonation

crimson dirge
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But then with qui there’s more options, as I understand it:

  1. Qui est-il arrivé ?
  2. Est-ce qui est arrivé ?
  3. Qui est-ce qui est arrivé ?
  4. Qui est arrivé ?
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(1) is very formal, (4) is informal

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but how do (2) and (3) compare?

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(I know (3) feels redundant with this verb, but with another verb it might be less repetitive)

silent sail
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Well (1) doesn’t exist since « arriver » can’t take a direct object

crimson dirge
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wait, why should it take a direct object?

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if est-il arrivé means ‘has he arrived’, then qui est-il arrivé should mean ‘who has arrived?’… right?

silent sail
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Inversion means that the question word is in place of an object

crimson dirge
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oh

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OK

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well, it looks like my train leaves soon so I need to go now

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thanks for the discussion!

silent sail
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np

stone dust
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ce que t'as dit ça se dit pas du tout

silent sail
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Dans les phrases interrogatives informelles, le mot interrogatif peut se situer soit au début soit à la fin

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Sauf « que/quoi », ça change rien