riotmkg

[pearl knot]

Please be patient

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[outer tinsel]

Ce que is the replacement of the object followed by a sentence with subject, ce qui is the replacement of the object followed directly by a verb without the subject, and i never heard of Ce quoi

[plain briar]

use « ce que » when it's the the direct object of the verb

• Je comprends ce que tu dis.
  -# ** ** ("I understand what you're talking about.")
• *Il fait **ce qu'*il veut.
  -# ** ** ("He does what he wants.")
  here, the verbs « dis » and « veut » have direct objects

use « ce (prép.) quoi » when it's the indirect object of the verb with any preposition other than « de »

• Je me demande ce à quoi ils pensent.
  -# ** ** (I wonder what they're thinking about.")
• Voici ce dans quoi je vivais tout ce temps.
  -# ** ** ("Here's what I've been living in all this time.")
  here, the verbs « pensent » and « vivais » use the prepostions « à » and « dans » respectively

if it's an indirect object with the preposition « de », use « ce dont » in this case

• On sait exactement ce dont ils ont peur.
  -# ** ** ("We know exactly what they're afraid of.")
• Elle a tout ce dont elle avais besoin.
  -# ** ** ("She has all of what she needed.")
  here, the verbs « ont peur » and « avais besoin » both use the preposition « de »

[outer tinsel]

So i mean ce qui replace a subject

[plain briar]

what's bewildering is that « ce qui », « ce que », « ce dont », and « ce (prép.) quoi » can all mean "what" in English 💀

like here, where the French translation of the start of the sentence is « Ce qui est déroutant... »

[agile nest]

merci

could you clarify the indirect object in:
« Je me demande ce à quoi ils pensent. »
et
« Voici ce dans quoi je vivais tout ce temps. »

is it due to the fact that the object is after the preposition, making it indirect?

[plain briar]

yes

that’s what makes an object indirect

[ornate rose]

To be fair, the indirect versions can make sense if the preposition moves to the pronoun. In English, you can separate the pronoun and the preposition governing it like:
‘The man (who) you’re talking about is my father.’
‘What I’m thinking of is my homework.’
French doesn’t do this; in the vast vast vast majority of cases, prepositions come with the thing they’re modifying so you get:
« L’homme dont (de + qui/lequel) tu parles est mon père. »
« Ce à quoi je pense est mon devoir. »

Older English guides and grammarians tried to impose Latin preposition rules into English, and since French came from Latin, the resulting English sentence looks a lot like the French:
‘The man about/of whom you are talking is my father.’
‘Of what I’m thinking is my homework.’

[plain briar]

i see

[ornate rose]

For « ce que/ce qui », that’s because French relative pronouns mainly differentiate between subject/object whereas English ones differentiate between inanimate/animate.
‘It’s the poison that kills you.’
‘It’s the poison that you know.’
‘It’s the man who knows you.’
‘It’s the man who you know.’
The difference between the former and latter two sentences are the noun they’re replacing: inanimate (the poison) for the first two, animate (the man) for the second two. ‘What’ doesn’t have an inanimate/animate version, so it just doesn’t make this distinction.

If I were to translate those four into French, the results would different instead by role:
« C'est le poison qui te tue. »
« C'est le poison que tu connais. »
« C'est l'homme qui te connait. »
« C'est l'homme que tu connais. »
where « qui » serves as subject and « que » serves as object. Because of that, « ce qui/ce que » – as indefinite relative pronouns – will also make that distinction.
« C'est ce qui te dérange. »
« C'est ce que tu veux. »

English used to differentiate subject/object for their animates, who/whom, but the object has mostly disappeared. You used to go:
'That is the man who is my neighbour' = Subject so 'who'
'That is the man whom I know' = Direct object so 'whom'
'That is the man about whom I'm talking' = Indirect object so 'whom'
Nowadays we go:
'That is the man who is my neighbour'
'That is the man who I know'
'That is the man who I'm talking about'

[plain briar]

oh okay