4 ms·

I'm a native french speaker and only recently realized that "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" ("what is it ?") literally translates to "what is it that it is ?".

by iodbh 7y ago

enz 7y ago
You can just say « Qu’est-ce ? » as well which is literally "what is it" ;) (written form rather than colloquial)
- yann63 7y ago
  You could, and it would be correct. But few would understand at first. It sounds like "caisse", like in "caisse de vin" (crate of wine).
  - julienfr112 7y ago
    It could also be used by an "homme de lettre" in a very pompous way.
  - forty 7y ago
    It's much more understandable if you add "donc" after "Qu'est ce". I don't really know why, it just adds extra weirdness :)
  - mehrdadn 7y ago
    Can you say "Quoi est-ce?" and avoid that ambiguity (and correspondingly, "Qui est-ce?")? Or would that be wrong?
    - bdauvergne 7y ago
      You can't, the "liaison" is mandatory between "quoi" and "est".
    - jobigoud 7y ago
      "Qui est-ce ?" is correct. "Quoi est-ce ?" is not. "Quand est-ce" and "Où est-ce" work. "Comment est-ce ?" doesn't really work by itself but could work with something after it, like "Comment est ce film ?". All of these work and sound more natural in spoken language if you flip and say C'est quoi ? C'est qui ? C'est quand ? etc.
remram 7y ago
And the famous "Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose là ?", meaning "what is this thing", but literally "what is this that this is that this thing there?"
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  I'm a little confused, why is the second "que" there? Why can't it just be "Qu'est-ce que c'est cette chose-là?"? (I'd expect it to be the equivalent of "What is it that it's that thing there?")
  - mratsim 7y ago
    It's decorative, it has no meaning. Similarly you have "les choses que l'on voit" and "les choses qu'on voit" with the "l'" being there for prettyness.
    - mehrdadn 7y ago
      Oh huh, merci!
loeg 7y ago
As a French-3rd-language learner (first English, then a little Spanish) I was (and am still) really confused about why "qu'est-ce que" is a thing. Spanish doesn't do that, at least as far as I recall. In many respects the languages have similar vocabulary (at least, coming from an English-speaking perspective).

I'm a native french speaker and only recently realized that "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" ("what is it ?") literally translates to "what is it that it is ?".

by iodbh 7y ago

I'm a native french speaker and only recently realized that "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" ("what is it ?") literally translates to "what is it that it is ?".

enz 7y ago

You can just say « Qu’est-ce ? » as well which is literally "what is it" ;) (written form rather than colloquial)

yann63 7y ago
You could, and it would be correct. But few would understand at first. It sounds like "caisse", like in "caisse de vin" (crate of wine).
- julienfr112 7y ago
  It could also be used by an "homme de lettre" in a very pompous way.
- forty 7y ago
  It's much more understandable if you add "donc" after "Qu'est ce". I don't really know why, it just adds extra weirdness :)
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Can you say "Quoi est-ce?" and avoid that ambiguity (and correspondingly, "Qui est-ce?")? Or would that be wrong?
  - bdauvergne 7y ago
    You can't, the "liaison" is mandatory between "quoi" and "est".
  - jobigoud 7y ago
    "Qui est-ce ?" is correct. "Quoi est-ce ?" is not. "Quand est-ce" and "Où est-ce" work. "Comment est-ce ?" doesn't really work by itself but could work with something after it, like "Comment est ce film ?". All of these work and sound more natural in spoken language if you flip and say C'est quoi ? C'est qui ? C'est quand ? etc.

remram 7y ago

And the famous "Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette chose là ?", meaning "what is this thing", but literally "what is this that this is that this thing there?"

mehrdadn 7y ago
I'm a little confused, why is the second "que" there? Why can't it just be "Qu'est-ce que c'est cette chose-là?"? (I'd expect it to be the equivalent of "What is it that it's that thing there?")
- mratsim 7y ago
  It's decorative, it has no meaning. Similarly you have "les choses que l'on voit" and "les choses qu'on voit" with the "l'" being there for prettyness.
  - mehrdadn 7y ago
    Oh huh, merci!

loeg 7y ago

As a French-3rd-language learner (first English, then a little Spanish) I was (and am still) really confused about why "qu'est-ce que" is a thing. Spanish doesn't do that, at least as far as I recall. In many respects the languages have similar vocabulary (at least, coming from an English-speaking perspective).