qu’est-ce que
\k‿ɛs kə\
The verdict
“qu’est-ce que” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a pronoun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Quoi.
Corpus desk
Index FR-qu-est-ce-que · qu’est-ce que · French
qu’est-ce que · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "Q" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | qu’est-ce que |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | \k‿ɛs kə\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « qu’est-ce que » en français
Rare enough to double-check
qu’est-ce que is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as apronoun, transcribed \k‿ɛs kə\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
qu’est-ce que has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is qu’est-ce que, spelled Q-U-’-E-S-T---C-E- -Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Quoi.
- 2Qu’est-ce que c’est que … ?
- 3Pourquoi.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how qu’est-ce que appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Allons ! assieds-toi donc… Qu’est-ce que tu bois ?
Nom de Dieu ! Feempje, qu’est-ce que tu fous ? s’informa joyeusement un passant en lui bourrant l’épaule d’une tape.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.