Qué and lo que

[Zach]

I heard somewhere that normally you use "qué" for "what", but when you want to put "what" in the middle of a sentence it becomes "lo que". Is this true? And, why do some sentences start with "lo que"?

[Tomisimo]

I heard somewhere that normally you use "qué" for "what", but when you want to put "what" in the middle of a sentence it becomes "lo que". Is this true? And, why do some sentences start with "lo que"?

Although it's often true that when what is in the middle of a sentance it's "lo que" and at the beginning it's "qué", the place in the sentance doesn't have much to do with which one you use.

Qué is the "question" word.
Lo que is the "pronoun"

Let me give you some examples to make this clearer.

Qué as a question word
¿Qué vamos a comer hoy? - What are we going to eat today?
¿Qué horas son? - What time is it?
¿Qué hemos de hacer? - What shall we do?
... y yo pensé entre mí, ¿qué hace aquí él? - ... and I thought to myself, what's he doing here?

Lo que - the pronoun
Eso es lo que pensé. - That's what I thought.
Lo que como en las mañanas es avena. - What I eat in the morning is oatmeal.
Lo que ella dijo está bien. - What she said is right.

So... what this means is whenever you're asking a question, you should use qué (note the accent mark), and whenever you want to use the word "what" when it's not a question, use "lo que".

This is just off the top of my head. I'll look it up in a grammar reference later today and see if they mention anything else.

[Neophyte]

Thanks for that information, that's really good. Iwas wondering the same thing.


Although it's often true that when what is in the middle of a sentance it's "lo que" and at the beginning it's "qué", the place in the sentance doesn't have much to do with which one you use.

Qué is the "question" word.
Lo que is the "pronoun"

Let me give you some examples to make this clearer.

Qué as a question word
¿Qué vamos a comer hoy? - What are we going to eat today?
¿Qué horas son? - What time is it?
¿Qué hemos de hacer? - What shall we do?
... y yo pensé entre mí, ¿qué hace aquí él? - ... and I thought to myself, what's he doing here?

Lo que - the pronoun
Eso es lo que pensé. - That's what I thought.
Lo que como en las mañanas es avena. - What I eat in the morning is oatmeal.
Lo que ella dijo está bien. - What she said is right.

So... what this means is whenever you're asking a question, you should use qué (note the accent mark), and whenever you want to use the word "what" when it's not a question, use "lo que".

This is just off the top of my head. I'll look it up in a grammar reference later today and see if they mention anything else.

[Nix]

Waht is lo? can you use it anywhere else or only as lo que

Thanks.

[shruti]

Lo is an object pronoun meaning "it."

On a related note, when does one use a phrase such as "él que"? What's the difference between that and "lo que"? It it a subject v. object thing?

[Zach]

"lo" means it

"él" means he

So, "lo que" means "it that," and "él que" means "he that".

A sample sentence:

"Es todo lo que necessito" literally means "Is all it that I need."

Hope that helps.

[shruti]

But your sample sentence is wrong. D:

So not really helpful, no.

Er, and I think I meant to type "el que" not "él que." Or maybe not. I'm confusing myself.

[Tomisimo]

But your sample sentence is wrong. D:

Actually the Spanish part of Zach's example is fine. (except for spelling ;D)

"Es todo lo que necessito" literally means "Is all it that I need."

Es todo lo que necesito - It's all (that) I need

Now on to answer your question shruti,

drumroll .....

Use lo que when you're referring to elusive, and not a tangible person, place, thing or an intangible but definite idea, emotion etc.

Lo que quise decir fue ... What I meant to say was ...
Mira lo que pasa cuando no tienes cuidado - Look what happens when you're not careful.
Lo que respiramos es aire - What we breath is air
¿Qué es lo que pasó? - What happened?

¿Qué pantalón quieres que me ponga? El que está en la cama.
What pants do you want me to wear? The ones on the bed.

El carro que está afuera está bien bonito. ¿Cuál? El que traje o el que trajiste tú?
That car out there sure is nice. Which one? The one I brought or the one you brought.

The examples of el que would also be la que los que and las que depending on the gender and number of the noun.

That was just a real quick explaination off the top of my head. If it doesn't make sense, just let me know. :)

[shruti]

No, makes perfect sense.

And I misread Zach's sentence, sorry about that.

[Tomisimo]

No, makes perfect sense.

And I misread Zach's sentence, sorry about that.
No, problem, It's easy to misread something. :)

Another interesting use of lo is to say stuff like this:

Lo importante es ... The important thing is...
Lo más interesante fue... The most interesting part of it was...
Lo aburrido de esta clase es cuando el profe lee el cuento al final. The boring part of this class is when the teacher reads the story at the end.

[Nix]

Thanks for answering my question, this helps a lot :)

[luisc0719]

i thought lo que meant whatever

[Tomisimo]

i thought lo que meant whatever
Welcome to the forums Luis, nice avatar :)

lo que sea is usually used for whatever.