Salut c’est Géraldine, bienvenue sur Comme
une Française TV, Sound French, even to the French.
Quoi ? Yet another word that’s used everywhere,
but with mysterious rules that are hard to
explain ???
Like “allez," “quoi” is a word where
the rules are different and intuitive, we
don’t think too much about it.
You surely asked yourself “why is he adding
“quoi” randomly in this sentence ?," “Why
isn’t she using “que” here ?” Today
I’ll show how you can use “quoi” in
your day-to-day speech.
Quoi means what… mostly
Grammatically, in a sentence, “Quoi” is
a pronoun.
It means “what” when there’s a preposition
before, like “with," “where," ; when there’s
no preposition, you would use “que” instead.
So, as the French use only one word, “qui,"
for “who” and “whom," we kept a distinction
for “what” : two different words, “que”
et “quoi."
Which preposition to use, and where, depends
on the verb you use.
It’s really tricky ; they are mostly the
same as in English but there’s also many
differences.
It comes with practice ; I won’t cover the
prepositions in this video, as it’s a whole
other can of worms.
For example : “What do you want ?” -> “Que
veux-tu ?” (ou “Qu’est-ce que tu veux?”)
“What are you thinking about ?” -> “à
quoi penses-tu ?” (Remember, French prepositions
come at the beginning of questions, and not
at the end.)
“What can I wear this with ?” -> “Avec
quoi puis-je porter ça ?”
French questions are supposed to start with
the pronoun ; however, when talking, we very
often put “quoi” at the end instead, and
it even replaces the usual “que."
“What do you want ?” - “Que veux-tu
?” becomes “Tu veux quoi ?”
What are you thinking about” ?” -> “à quoi
tu penses ?” -> “Tu penses à quoi ?” It’s
technically incorrect, so don’t use it in
professional e-mails, but you can use it in
your speech with no problem.
“Quoi” is not only used for questions
; it can introduce a new subject and verb,
a relative clause, in an affirmative sentence
: “I don’t know what you want”
“Je ne sais pas de quoi tu as envie”
“This is not what I’m talking about”
- “Ce n’est pas de quoi je parle” We
usually have a shorter way to express our
idea, but it’s still used now and then.
Finally, “ou quoi ?” at the end of a sentence
means “or what ?," and is used basically
the same way.
“Tu te dépêches ou quoi ?” - “Are
you going to hurry up, or what ?” You could
change it to “ou bien ?” as well.
“Tu te dépêches, ou bien ?” - ‘Are
you going to hurry up, or what ?” Ou bien
is less used all around France, but I love
it.
Sounds old-fashioned or regional to me.
Quoi on its own
Like “What," “Quoi” is used on its own
to express surprise, a lack of information,
or misunderstanding.
So if someone tells you he’s never eaten
camembert : “Au fait, j’ai jamais mangé
de camembert” - “QUOI ? tu n’as JAMAIS
mangé de camembert ??” If you want your
friend to give you more information about
something that’s being discussed : for example
: “Géraldine, tu sais ce que j’aime dans
tes vidéos ?””Quoi ?”
Or if you don’t understand what she said
: “mblmmmblmblmhonhonhon” - “Quoi ?” Here
you should actually change it to “Excuse-me”
or “I beg your pardon” : “Excusez-moi
?” or “Pardon ?," if you want to be more
polite, but don’t worry if you ask “Quoi”
instead.
It’s widely used and instinctive for most
native speakers.
“Quoi” as a question can have a more defiant
meaning still ; like a confrontational
“What’s your problem?”
It can be said on its own : ”Quoi ?” “What
!?”
Quoi as a filler
You’ll sometimes hear “quoi” used seemingly
at random in a sentence.
Some French speakers seem to place the word
ballistically in their speech, throwing it
around and hoping it makes sense.
Mostly any period or comma, can be changed
into “quoi..."
You’re implicitly testing if your conversation
partner understands your words ; or you’re
reformulating what you’ve already said.
That’s why “quoi” just at the end of
a sentence before a period could translate
loosely into “you know ?," “get it ?” or
even “basically."
“J’ai lu du Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Maupassant,
Molière… les classiques, quoi.
“I’ve read some Victor Hugo, Emile Zola,
Maupassant, Molière… classic literature,
you know ?”
Don’t overuse it ! Try to use other words
instead for variety, like “tu vois ?” (“you
know ?” or “see that ?”), or “en fait”
(“actually”), or even “en gros” (“basically”)...
It depends on your context.
Quoi in French expressions
A few idiomatic expressions use “quoi."
“Un je-ne-sais-quoi," for example, is a
French expression that I’ve actually heard
more in American speech, but it’s sometimes
used in actual French as well.
It literally means “I don’t know what,"
and it’s ”a pleasant quality that’s
hard to describe, a charm that you can’t
exactly put into words." It’s quite poetic.
“Il avait ce je-ne-sais-quoi qui m’a tout
de suite plu” - “He had that je-ne-sais-quoi
that I loved from the get-go."
Another useful expression is “il n’y a
pas de quoi," literally “there’s no need for it."
It means “you’re welcome” : you can
say it after someone thanked you, like the
more common “De rien."
Finally, you have “n’importe quoi."
A strange expression ; it literally means
“whatever that is," but it has other meanings
instead : “that’s nonsense," after a sentence
that… doesn’t make sense, that you don’t believe.
“Tu savais que la France et le Brésil ont
failli se faire la guerre pour des langoustes?” -
(“Did you
know that France and Brazil almost waged war
over lobsters ?””That’s nonsense.”) n'importe quoi “A mess, things done at random."
“Quand je joue aux échecs, je fais n’importe
quoi.”
(“When I play chess, I’m doing… things
at random” ) A famous French performer,
Rémi Gaillard 
used it in his nonsensical motto : “C’est
en faisant n’importe quoi qu’on devient
n’importe qui.”
“It’s by
doing anything that you’ll become anybody.”
or “Doing messy stuff leads you to become
a messy man."
He’s really doing n’importe quoi.
Et toi ? Did you spot other uses of “quoi”
in French?
Do you manage to use it properly?
When did you use “quoi” for the last time
? Share your experience (in French if you
dare!) in the comments below.
We can all learn from your story.
The comment section is the best place to start
discussions and ask questions!
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