★★ Why Qu’est-ce que c’est and not Qu’est-ce?

https://discoverdiscomfort.com/quest-ce-que-cest-what-is-it/

 

Why Qu’est-ce que c’est and not Qu’est-ce?

Go to bottom if you don't understand components of “qu’est-ce que c’est”

Now, you might wonder why not simply use “qu’est-ce”?

If you break down “qu’est-ce” it would be translated to “What is it?” right? While this is technically true, it is hardly ever used in spoken or written language. The best way to look at it is understanding that all questions in French use “est-ce que” (or est-ce qui) in between their question word (que, qui, ou, quand, comment) and their verb and object. Let’s look at some examples:

•  Qui est-ce qui est là? – Who is there?
•  Qu’est-ce qui se passe? – What’s up?
•  Qu’est-ce qu’il y a? – What is there?
•  Qu’est-ce que tu veux? – What do you want?
•  Ou est-ce qu’il vit? – Where does he live?

Looking at these examples we understand that est-ce que (or est-ce qui) is more of a placeholder than a literal translation of “what is it?”. Therefore to say “what is it?” always opt for “qu’est-ce que c’est?”.

 

 

https://allaboutfrench.com/quest-ce-que-cest

The trick is to keep in mind that “Qu’est ce que” = “What” in this situation and “C’est ?” = “Is it?“. Do not lose yourself in the literal translation, it’s not worth it.

 

Qu’est-ce que c’est Meaning

Many French learners have trouble remembering and pronouncing  qu'est-ce que c'est at first or confuse it with the many other French questions that there are. Understanding which components go into the expression can be helpful at this stage.

Qu’ – the “qu’” is actually the abbreviation of que, which means what (at the beginning of a question) or that. We skip it’s final “e” and replace it with an apostrophe because the next part of our sentence starts with a vowel as well.

Est – the “est” simply means is. It’s the third person present form of the verb être.

Ce – the “ce” means it or that.

Que – you might recognize this from the first one! It’s the full form of the abbreviated “qu’” that we saw previously and in this case, means that.

C’est – you can probably put together “c’est” from the “ce” and “est” we looked at before. Together it means “it is”.

The literal translation of “qu’est ce que c’est” turns out to be “What is it that it is?”. Are you more or less confused now than you were five minutes ago? No worries, if those mental gymnastics are too much for you simply remember,  qu'est-ce que c'est altogether just means “what is it”?