#Telling and remembering the difference between ’Whats’

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thin compassBOT
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<how to differenciate between the different ’What’s in French?>

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Telling and remembering the difference between ’Whats’

main stirrup
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In effect, yes you just kinda memorise it, but you can deconstruct it

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First of all « est-ce que » is a question marker. We use it in place of inversion. For example:
« Tu es médecin (You are a doctor) —> Es-tu médecin ? (Are you a doctor?) »
Inversion is formal so to make it less formal we use « est-ce que » :
« Est-ce que tu es médecin ? »

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Second, that « Qu' » is the question word « Que (What) », which is an object and so demands inversion:
« Que fais-tu ? (What are you doing?) »
—> « Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? (What is it that you are doing?) »

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As for why you have to say « c'est X » or « c'est que X » like « Qu'est-ce que c'est, cette chose / Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose », it has to do with « c'est ».
Since we're asking about something that is unknown, we tend to use « ce » since « ce » can be used to refer to something that is unknown. Thing is, « qu'est-ce que c'est » is already fixed so when we do have a defined thing (I used « cette chose (this/that thing) » in the example above), we can't replace « ce » with our noun so we add it after the sentence, kinda like an afterthought.

primal bloom
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Hmm thank you very much for your explanation! I like the way you broke it down.

Its definitely easier looking at it from that approach!

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I have to look more into this** inversion concept **as well.

I'm very new so I'm certain it'll pop up in my studies, but I was seeing this group of words a lot and I figured it was worth looking into!

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It seems like, a simple way to ask questions is invert a noun + verb pair in order to ask as you showed me.

I think that I'm following what you're saying

main stirrup
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Inversion is formal and has a bunch of quirks

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The best way to do it is « est-ce que »

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just put that before the subject

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bam you're done

primal bloom
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Is that the most common way you'll see questions made?

main stirrup
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« est-ce que » is also the neutral way of asking a question

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so you can't go wrong

main stirrup
primal bloom
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Okay, with it still being in the context of what, I'd say something like

"Qu'est-ce que la chose dans la cuisine?"

Is this a valid sentence?

main stirrup
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it's a bit formal though

primal bloom
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Yes!!! Thats probably the most complex sentence I've made by myself yet, thank you!!!

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Hmm so I don't need the "Qu'" part?

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Est-ce que la chose dans la cuisine?

main stirrup
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« c'est » part

primal bloom
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Ahhhh

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"Que la chose dans la cuisine?" (nope)

main stirrup
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Not valid

primal bloom
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mmk, I got confused then

main stirrup
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« est-ce que » and « c'est » are different things

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« est-ce que » is a unit

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treat them as one

primal bloom
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So this was fine - Est-ce que la chose dans la cuisine? (nope)

But its still formal-ish?

main stirrup
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There isn't any

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Okay so stepping back a sec

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« Qu'est-ce que c'est » is neutral

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To make it a bit more formal, you can swap « c'est » for the noun

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Qu'est-ce que c'est, cette chose / Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose
—> Qu'est-ce que cette chose

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That's still neutral but tends to formal

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The issue is that the formal formulation, « Qu'est-ce » is really formal

main stirrup
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This is a special case for « qu'est-ce que c'est »

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For other questions, you still need a verb

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For your question, « Que la chose dans la cuisine? », there's no verb and no inversion/est-ce que, so it's wrong

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The valid questions would be:
La chose est-elle dans la cuisine ?
Est-ce que la chose est dans la cuisine ?
La chose est dans la cuisine ?
This is a simple yes/no question.

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For your « que » thing, it has to act as an object

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For example

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« Émilie fait [quelque chose] dans la cuisine (Émilie does [something] in the kitchen) »
—> Que fait Émilie dans la cuisine ?
—> Qu'est-ce qu'Émilie fait dans la cuisine ?
—> Émilie fait quoi dans la cuisine ?
'What is Émilie doing in the kitchen?'

primal bloom
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Okay so I'm thinking about this sentence now: Est-ce que la chose dans la cuisine?

And I'm rereading your notes to see if I can figure out what I missed about that not being valid

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I do understand the other case you pointed out though

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I think basically, compared to your example "la chose" itself isn't doing anything in my sentence

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Because in your example, "la chose" is paired with "est" in the sense that it is "existing" in the kitchen

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But in my sentence, I mistook "dans" as enough when that is not "is in" but "in"

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So its kind of like:

Est-ce que la chose dans la cuisine? -> What that in the kitchen

vs

Est-ce que la chose **est **dans la cuisine -> What is that in the kitchen

?

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Okay, I think I finally got it. Thank you so much!

main stirrup
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Est-ce que la chose est dans la cuisine
–> Is that thing in the kitchen?

primal bloom
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Ah damn it

main stirrup
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For 'What is that thing in the kitchen', I would say:
—> Qu'est-ce que cette chose dans la cuisine ?
—> Qu'est-ce que c'est, cette chose dans la cuisine ?
—> Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose dans la cuisine ?
—> C'est quoi, cette chose dans la cuisine ?

primal bloom
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Okay but I got the reason why the sentence was originally wrong, even if my translation was wrong right?

main stirrup
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Yes you got it right

primal bloom
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I just want to make sure I at least am making a valid sentence and understand why it isn't

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Okay good

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Thank you for pointing that translation out too

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"—> Qu'est-ce que cette chose dans la cuisine ?"

Where is the verb here? I think the other sentences all have c'est as the verb, but I don't know what the verb is supposed to be above

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Alright, I'm going to stop here for the night. I appreciate your patience as I learned quite a bit from you. Have a good night!

main stirrup