emygd_

[mild grail]

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.

[native stirrup]

even looking a bit into it ive seen cases where it could be used informally, but in specific cases only

[untold oar]

first of, "qu' " is the elided form of "que"
meaning it's que before a consonant, and qu' before a vowel (and mute h)

[native stirrup]

ohh

ive seen "c'qu'elle" used in a song before, is that an artistic thing ?

[untold oar]

this is a nonstandard way to write things, mimicking natural speech

similar to writing "woulda done" instead of "would have done" for instance

[native stirrup]

ohhh i see

[untold oar]

it's actually "ce qu'elle"
que does elide to qu' because it's followed by a vowel
ce does not elide because it's followed by a consonant. However, that -e is a schwa, which is the weakest vowel in the language and usually gets dropped when speaking

[native stirrup]

i see

[untold oar]

the non inverted form would be "c'est quoi ?"
"quoi" and "que" are the same thing, except "que" is used with inversion and "quoi" is used without inversion

[native stirrup]

so its like a stylistic thing ?

[native stirrup]

ohhhh i see

[untold oar]

it's probably for lyrics, right?
then adding a vowel sound would actually add another syllable, meaning another note. In songs, the number of syllables is very important, so writing it like this makes sure you're supposed to pronounce it by dropping the vowel sound

[native stirrup]

i see

tysm !!!

[untold oar]

the word order for non inversion is the same as stating facts.
the word order for stating facts is "c'est [X]" (this is [X])
if you wanna ask what this is, same word order: c'est quoi ? (this is [what], doesn't work in English, but that's how French works)

[native stirrup]

ohhhh

wait, so you cant say "que c'est"?

even affirmatively

[untold oar]

you can't

[native stirrup]

i was assuming you could cause my native language does that

so how would you say "this is what that is"?

[hardy stirrup]

well that "what" is different from the one used in questions

[untold oar]

this is a very different what indeed, it would translate differently

[hardy stirrup]

there isn't one answer to this

[native stirrup]

ohhh i see

[untold oar]

however,
most interrogative adverbs could be placed at the start of a sentence
c'est où ? = où c'est ? (where is it?)
c'est quand ? = quand c'est ? (when is it?)
c'est quoi ? doesn't have such an equivalent

[native stirrup]

ohhhhhhh i see i see

tysmm !!!! im sorry for being so stubborn

[untold oar]

don't worry! just remember to favor this channel for explanations over discussion channels

[hardy stirrup]

i mean you can switch c'est quoi around but then you need est-ce que
qu'est-ce que c'est

[untold oar]

yup, there are three ways of asking questions
using intonation, same word order as stating a fact
using inversion
using a "est-ce que" helper
basically every question could be formulated those 3 ways

[native stirrup]

aight aight, i didnt send a msg here bc i thought it was an event thing

[native stirrup]

is there any abbreviation of qu'est-ce que c'est

[hardy stirrup]

keske c

or just say c'est quoi

[native stirrup]

ohhh ok tysm !!!

[untold oar]

qq c'est as well

[hardy stirrup]

pour moi qq c'est quelqu'un

bon en contexte ça passe

[untold oar]

there are multiple ways to abbreviate constructions with est-ce que and que in context

if you wanna go faster you might not wanna use an est-ce que construction

[untold oar]

kk c'est

kekessé

[hardy stirrup]

c qoi que c

[native stirrup]

wym ?

[untold oar]

well "qu'est-ce que c'est ?" and "c'est quoi ?" mean the same so one way to avoid writing "est-ce que" is to go for the latter, avoid such constructions altogether

[native stirrup]

i see