quel
French, determiner/kɛl/
quel is spelled Q-U-E-L (4 letters) and appears 282 times per million words in written French, the 294th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Quel is a French masculine determiner meaning “which” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
What does quel mean in English?
determiner
- 1
masculinewhich
Des psychologues ont essayé d'analyser quels traits physiques étaient considérés comme attirants.
- 2
masculinewhat, what a (used to form exclamations)
Quelle catastrophe !
pronoun
- 1
masculinewhat
Quel est son nom?
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Interroge sur l’identité du nom suivant. 2. Interroge sur la qualité du nom suivant.
pronoun: 1. Interroge sur l’identité ou la qualité du sujet.
adjective: 1. Employé comme tel, il a pour but de renforcer la portée du nom qu’il accompagne. Il peut être dans une phrase elliptique (sans verbe) ou à l’intérieur d’une proposition.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of quel
- quelle feminine
- quels masculine plural
- quelles feminine plural
- queu
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce quel?
- /kɛl/
- \kɛl\
- [kɛl]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to quel
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is quel in French?
quel appears 282 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).