letoos_

[fading valley]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[tranquil haven]

context is key here

if you're asking about why someone felt bad or uncomfortable, "qu'est-ce qui n'allait pas ?"

[zinc cargo]

If possible could you explain what each word means

I think the mistake I made was making a literal translation from eng to French

[stuck acorn]

first of, translating "what"

quel is an interrogative adjective. Just like adjectives, it needs to qualify a noun.
While it translates to "what", it only works as "what [thing]"
and quel/quels/quelle/quelles are the forms (for sing/plur, and masc/fem)
for instance "what color do you want?" => "tu veux quelle couleur ?"

que is an interrogative adverb, and works by itself.
It also translates to "what", when that what acts as a whole concept
"what do you do?" => "que fais-tu ?" (what or que replacing the thing that you're doing)

here, because "what" is your object, you have to use que/quoi

__
second of, regarding how to ask questions
French has three ways to do so

• intonation => same word order as stating a fact except that your intonation conveys it's a question (informal)
  ex: tu veux quoi ? (what do you want?)
• est-ce que => using the "est-ce que" construction clears up the fact it's a question and is not as informal while not being the overly formal inversion
  ex: qu'est-ce que tu veux ? (what do you want?)
• inversion => there are rules to inversion, but the main one is inverting verb and pronoun order alongside linking them with a dash, it's very formal
  ex: que veux-tu ? (what do you want?)