Interrogative Pronouns

Catalan interrogatives identify a missing person, thing, choice, quantity, or place. The central forms are qui “who,” què “what,” quin “which/what,” quant “how much/how many,” and on “where.” They work in both direct questions and embedded questions, but their form, agreement, and preposition depend on the role of the missing constituent—not on English word order.

The core system

These are tonic, independent words, not weak pronouns. They do not elide before a vowel and never attach to a verb with a hyphen. Any clitic next to them belongs to the verb: Qui *t'ho ha dit?* (“Who told you that?”).

Qui and què: person versus nonperson

Use qui for a person. It may be the subject, direct object, or complement of a preposition.

Use què, always with a grave accent, for a thing, fact, action, or requested information.

The accent distinguishes interrogative què from unstressed relative or conjunction que: Què diu? but el missatge que diu que arribaran tard. Catalan does not use an English-style auxiliary “do”; the finite verb remains an ordinary Catalan form.

The direct-object a with qui

The question A qui has convidat? contains a direct object. Contemporary standard Catalan permits—and often favors—a before an animate interrogative, especially when it prevents ambiguity: A qui ha vist la Maria? clearly asks for Maria's object. This is not a license to copy Spanish a before every human direct object. With an ordinary noun phrase, Catalan still generally says He convidat la veïna, not he convidat a la veïna merely because she is human.

By contrast, a is required when the verb assigns it independently: A qui has donat les claus? Here the person is the recipient of donar—an indirect object—and the clitic answer is Li he donat les claus a l'Arnau.

Quin: choosing and modifying a noun

Quin agrees with the noun stated or understood. Before a noun, English often translates it as “what” rather than “which.”

As a pronoun, quin stands for a recoverable noun and still agrees with it.

Derive that use from the full phrase No sé quina jaqueta comprar: once jaqueta is understood, it can be omitted, but feminine singular quina remains. This is a genuine nonfinite host: quina is the object of infinitive comprar.

Do not use què directly before a noun: “what book?” is quin llibre?, not què llibre?. Conversely, when no set or omitted noun is involved, use què: Què ha passat? rather than Quin ha passat?

Quant: amount and number

Quant agrees when it quantifies a stated or omitted noun. Singular usually asks about an amount; plural asks about countable items or people.

In the second example, en represents the quantified noun phrase and the detached de tomàquets names the set. English has no equivalent clitic, but Catalan uses it naturally: En vull tres. Omitting it in Quants vols? is possible when the noun is simply ellipsed and context is clear; with an explicit numeral answer, en is normally present.

When quant modifies a verb as “how much,” it is adverbial and invariable.

On and its prepositions

On asks about location and, with motion verbs, destination. Both on and a on can introduce a destination question in standard usage; plain on is usually the simplest choice. Other prepositions add precise relations.

Do not automatically add hi to on: On vius? already contains the location slot of viure. In On hi ha una farmàcia?, however, hi is part of the existential verb haver-hi, not a resumptive copy of on.

Prepositions come before the interrogative

Catalan normally does not strand a preposition at the end as English does. Keep the preposition selected by the verb or expression before the interrogative.

This is another nonfinite construction: amb qui supplies the complement of parlar, even though it stands at the front of the whole question.

Direct and embedded questions

An embedded question is selected by a verb such as saber, preguntar, explicar, or decidir. It keeps the interrogative but is integrated into a larger sentence. There is no obligatory subject–verb inversion in either type. The embedded questions page develops their clause structure in more detail.

The whole second sentence is a direct polite question, so it takes question marks; per què no hi puc accedir is itself embedded. A statement such as No entenc per què no hi puc accedir takes no question marks.

Do not confuse per què “why/for what” with perquè “because/so that.” Also distinguish interrogative on from free relative on: No sé on viu reports missing information; Aniré on viu identifies the destination as “where she lives.”

The antecedent of l' is unambiguously la carpeta. Its feminine form also licenses participle agreement deixada in careful usage.

Regional note

The five-part system is shared across the standard language. (regional: Alguerese) qual, quala, quals, quales are used where general Catalan normally has quin, quina, quins, quines; Alguerese also has traditional qui cosa alongside què. These are genuine regional forms, not replacements to mix into a Central Catalan baseline. Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, and Northern speech may use different surrounding verb or clitic forms, but the general interrogative contrasts remain the same.

Common Mistakes

1. Dropping the accent on interrogative què.

2. Using què before a noun.

3. Stranding the preposition.

4. Adding personal a when qui is the subject.

5. Adding hi because the question asks about place.

Key Takeaways

Use qui for people, què for things and propositions, agreeing quin for selection, agreeing or adverbial quant for quantity, and on for place. Put governed prepositions before the interrogative, preserve què's grave accent, and use the same interrogative forms in direct and embedded questions.