Meaning of Qu’est-ce que
Qu’est-ce que is a French expression that translates to What in English. It is commonly used in real life conversations to form questions and literally means What is it that. But, do not lose yourself in what this literally means. In daily speech, the phrase is used at the beginning of a sentence and all its versions mean ‘What?‘
So now the longer explanation. The phrase is the product of a contraction of which the French are quite fond. It starts with que (what) and the third person singular from of être (to be), which is est. Que is abreviated to Qu.
- Que: This is the interrogative pronoun what” in French.
- Est-ce que: This is a standard form used to form yes/no questions in French, literally meaning “is it that”.
Qu’est-ce que is used for direct question in French in a range of situations. I daily life, you will here it used for almost anything. Here are a couple of examples of how the phrase is used.
- Qu’est-ce que tu fais?
- What are you doing?
- Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça ?
- What is this?
- Qu’est-ce que tu veux dire
- What do you mean?
- Qu’est-ce que c’est, la conscience ?
- What is consciousness?
- Qu’est-ce que tu penses de ce que nous avons discuté lors de la réunion hier?
- What do you think about what we discussed during the meeting yesterday?
Pronunciation of Qu’est-ce que
Qu’est-ce que is pronounced in French as follows: /kɛ sə kə/. Here’s a breakdown of the pronunciation:
- Qu’: This is pronounced like “kuh” with a short “u” sound.
- est-ce que: This is pronounced “ess-kuh-kuh”.
- Ce: The final “ce” is pronounced like “suh”, with a soft “s” sound.
When spoken fluidly, Qu’est-ce que sounds like /kɛ sə kə/, with the emphasis on the first syllable “kɛ” and a slight pause between est-ce and que.