French learners often have trouble deciding how to translate "what" into French.

Should it be que or quoi, or maybe that pesky quel? Understanding the difference between these terms is critical to knowing how to use them correctly. The problem with translating "what" into French is that it has numerous grammatical functions in English. It can be an interrogative pronoun or adjective, relative pronoun, exclamative adjective, adverb, or object of a preposition, and may be found in any position in a sentence. In contrast, French has different terms for most of these possibilities, including que, qu'est-ce qui, quoi, comment, and quel. In order to know which term to use, you need to understand what function each of them performs. 1. When asking a question with "what" as either the subject or object, the French equivalent is the interrogative pronoun que. Que veux-tu ? Qu'est-ce que tu veux ? Que regardent-ils ? Qu'est-ce qu'ils regardent ? Qu'est-ce que c'est (que a) ? Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? 2. To ask a question in which "what" comes after the verb, use quoi. Note that this is an informal construction: Tu veux quoi ? C'est quoi, a ? a c'est quoi ? 3. When "what" joins two clauses, it is an indefinite relative pronoun. - If "what" is the subject of the relative clause, use ce qui (again, this doesn't mean "who"): Tout ce qui brille n'est pas or. Je me demande ce qui va se passer - When "what" is the object, use ce que: Dis-moi ce que tu veux. Je ne sais pas ce qu'elle a dit Ce qui and ce que are relative pronouns like qui and que; that is, they introduce a subordinate clause. However, ce qui and ce que are used in sentences in which there is no expressed antecedent. They do not refer to a specific noun,

but rather to an idea or an entire statement, which may or may not have been previously expressed: they refer to something unstated and unspecified. The choice between ce qui and ce que depends solely on the grammatical role, subject or direct object, that the relative pronoun plays in the subordinate clause. ce qui Ce qui (what, that, which) functions as the subject of the subordinate clause. Edouard, tu as lu le roman de Tex sur la deuxime guerre mondiale? * Edouard, have you read Tex's novel on WWII? Ah oui! Ce qui est fascinant, c'est sa description de l'poque. *Ah, yes I have! What's fascinating is his description of the period. J'adore tout ce qui se rapporte la Rsistance! *I love everything that is related to the Resistance! ce que Ce que (what, that, which) functions as the direct object of the subordinate clause. Ce que becomes ce qu' before a word beginning with a vowel.
Tammy: Tout ce que Tex cre est tellement original! Moi, j'aime ce qu'il crit propos de la France dans les annes 1940. Ce que je n'aime pas, c'est la fin du livre. Le hros meurt. Il n'pouse donc pas Marie-Tammy, ce que je trouve trs dommage. Tammy: Everything that Tex creates is so original! Personally, I like what he writes about France in the 1940s. What I don't like is the end of the book. The hero dies. So he does not marry Marie-Tammy, which I think is such a pity.

Note how the sentence 'Ce que je n'aime pas, c'est la fin du livre.' is more emphatic than saying simply 'Je n'aime pas la fin du livre.'