Asking Questions about People by Bruce Sallee and David Hebert
In English, we often begin questions by asking “who” or “what.” These are known as interrogative pronouns. French uses a similar set of interrogative pronouns that ask questions about people or things. Qui (who, whom) is the French interrogative pronoun used to ask questions about people.
Qui as the Subject of the Sentence
You can use qui to ask a question about someone by using it as the subject of the sentence. When used in this construction, the sentence does not need to be inverted, nor does est-ce que need to be used. Qui looks after the question for you; simply place it at the beginning of the sentence and follow it with a verb conjugated in the third person singular.
Qui est ici? |
Who is here? |
Qui est venu hier soir? |
Who came last night? |
You may also encounter the phrase qui est-ce qui used to start a question. This is just a longer way of doing things.
Qui as the Direct Object of the Sentence
Qui does not have to be the subject of the sentence; it can also be used as the object. When used in this way, the question must be formed a little differently. The proper subject and verb must be used, along with one of the traditional ways of forming a question, either est-ce que or inversion of the subject and verb. Qui is placed at the beginning of the sentence even though it is technically the object.
Qui regardes-tu? |
Who are you looking at? |
Qui est-ce que tu regardes? |
Who (whom) are you looking at? |
Both of the above sentences actually mean the same thing; the only difference is in the form of the question.
Qui Used with a Preposition
When qui is used in a question with a preposition, the preposition is placed at the beginning of the sentence, with qui immediately following it. The rest of the sentence is then formed in the same way as if qui were simply appearing as the object in est-ce que or inversion form.
À qui avez-vous parlé? |
Who have you spoken to? |
À qui est-ce que tu as besoin de parler? |
Who do you need to talk to? |
When qui is used with a preposition, it appears as the object and may also translate as “whom” in English. The above sentences could also be translated as “To whom have you spoken?” and “To whom do you need to talk?”
Pronunciation of Qui
In this section, you learned about asking questions about people using interrogative pronouns. Listen to the CD for the pronunciation of the expressions you learned.
Qui est ici? |
Who is here? |
Qui est venu hier soir? |
Who came last night? |
Qui regardes-tu? |
Who are you looking at? |
Qui est-ce que tu regardes? |
Who are you looking at? |
À qui avez-vous parlé? |
Who have you spoken to? |
À qui est-ce que tu as besoin de parler? |
Who do you need to talk to? |
