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Qu’est-ce versus Est-ce in French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4281 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English*, German | Message 1 of 13 20 January 2013 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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This might be really elementary, but I keep mixing up Qu'est-ce and Est-ce in French. I understand them as "turn it into a question" words. Put them at the beginning of a sentence and it turns the statement into a question. But what's the difference between these two? I keep searching french.about.com and other sites, but am not finding a simple explanation that clarifies these two things. Does anyone here know?
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| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4281 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 2 of 13 20 January 2013 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
PS: Here are some sample sentences quoted from Rocket French. I haven't been able to see a pattern as to when you should use one over the other.
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| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4447 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 3 of 13 20 January 2013 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Est-ce que is basically the English equivalent of "is/do" as far as questions are concerned, which in French is a set phrase to make a question. This, and the inversion to make a question work the same way, except one is more formal than the other.
Qu'est-ce que is basically "what + est-ce que" It's hard to explain, but basically according to your examples, the first one is "do you understand me". "Do" in English would be the "est-ce que" in French. Then for your qu'est-ce que example, it means "what do you want to do today" It's hard to explain like I said, for me anyway. But that's the gist I guess. Edited by sillygoose1 on 20 January 2013 at 9:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4476 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 13 20 January 2013 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would say that generally the "Qu'est-ce que..." type construction is the straightforward equivalent of a "What..." question in English. For example:
"Qu’est-ce que tu veux faire aujourd’hui ? " "What do you want to do today?" ...but... "Est-ce que vous allez à la cathédrale ?" "Are you going to the cathedral?" Now we can make two similar sentences: "Qu'est-ce que tu veux faire ?" "What do you want to do?" "Est-ce que tu veux faire [qqch] ?" "Do you want to do [something]?" The answer to an "est-ce que" question will often be a simple "oui" or "non," while the "qu'est-ce que" form is looking for information other than a yes-no-maybe type answer. Edited by tastyonions on 20 January 2013 at 9:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sans-serif Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4370 days ago 298 posts - 470 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Danish | Message 5 of 13 20 January 2013 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Think of it like this:
Est-ce que... = Is it that... Qu'est-ce que... = What is it that... So we get: Est-ce que vous me comprenez ? = Is it that you me understand? Qu’est-ce que tu veux faire aujourd’hui ? = What is it that you want to do today? It's basically just funny English. :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5376 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 13 20 January 2013 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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est-ce is the inversion of C'est ('it is' - a contraction of the archaic ce[la] est) to
form a question form. So est-ce is 'is it?' 'que' as a compliment means 'that' So in French the 'est-ce que' question form is 'est-ce que + statement', e.g. Est-ce que vous me comprenez? Literally in English: 'is it that you me understand?' - do you understand me? 'que' as an adverb is 'what' or 'how', so qu'est-ce que is 'what is it that', so 'Qu’est-ce que tu veux faire aujourd’hui ?' is literally 'What is it that you want to do today?' - What do you want to do today. [EDIT - I wrote this just as others explained it better than me, tant pis!] Edited by Elexi on 20 January 2013 at 9:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4476 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 13 20 January 2013 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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More generally, it helps to remember that "Qu'est-ce que" is a contracted version of "que" + "est-ce que." Because you can also have similar constructions with other interrogatives:
"Quand est-ce qu'il est parti ?" "When did he leave?" "De quoi est-ce que vous parlez ?" "What are you talking about?" "Où est-ce qu'elle va ?" "Where is she going?" etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4281 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 8 of 13 21 January 2013 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for everyone's help. I get it now.
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