A multiple interrogative asks for more than one missing value in a single clause: Qui ha encarregat què? asks for a person and an item, often as matched pairs. Contemporary Catalan normally fronts one interrogative phrase and leaves the others in their argument positions. The order is not arbitrary: the fronted phrase frames the question, while each in-situ phrase marks the slot whose value must be paired with it.
English also says “Who ordered what?”, so the basic pattern may look familiar. The differences emerge around prepositions, clitics, subject placement, and scope. Catalan keeps the preposition selected by the verb with its interrogative phrase and does not manufacture an English-style auxiliary or strand a preposition at the end.
One phrase in front, the others in place
The neutral pattern is fronted interrogative + finite clause + in-situ interrogative(s). If the fronted item is the subject, the finite verb agrees with it. The remaining interrogatives retain the roles they would have in a statement.
Qui ha portat què per al berenar?
Who brought what for the afternoon snack?
Quin equip presentarà quin prototip demà?
Which team will present which prototype tomorrow?
Qui enviarà quin document a qui abans de divendres?
Who will send which document to whom before Friday?
In the third example, qui is the subject, quin document the direct object, and a qui the recipient. The preposition a is structural information: it prevents the two human interrogatives from being mistaken for the same role.
When a nonsubject is fronted, the lexical subject can follow the verb, as in ordinary wh-questions:
A qui ha assignat cada tutora quin projecte?
Which project has each tutor assigned to whom?
This word order is dense but grammatical. In conversation, speakers often choose a more explicit paraphrase rather than making a listener hold three open variables at once.
Pair-list answers versus one missing fact
The characteristic interpretation is a pair-list reading: for every value of the first interrogative, supply a corresponding value for the second.
Qui seu a quina taula?
Who is sitting at which table? — Expected answer: a list matching people to tables.
Quina clau obre quina porta del magatzem?
Which key opens which door in the warehouse? — Expected answer: key–door pairs.
Compare a single wh-question with its multiple counterpart:
Quin llibre ha triat la Núria?
Which book has Núria chosen? — One book is unknown.
Quin alumne ha triat quin llibre?
Which student has chosen which book? — The answer matches every student with a book.
Context can restrict the list. If only Núria's choice matters, the second form is unnecessarily broad. Conversely, asking Qui ha triat un llibre? identifies people but treats un llibre as an indefinite, not as a second requested value.
An in-situ interrogative can also be an echo remnant rather than part of a planned pair-list question:
—La Mar ha enviat l'esborrany a algú. —La Mar ha enviat què a qui?
‘Mar sent the draft to someone.’ ‘Mar sent what to whom?’ — Echoing two surprising or unheard details.
That echo order keeps the known topic la Mar first. It is (informal) and strongly dependent on corrective or surprised intonation. A neutral request would more naturally begin Què ha enviat la Mar i a qui?
True multiple questions and coordinated questions
Not every sentence containing two question words has the same structure. A multiple interrogative asks for values within one event. A coordinated or elliptical question asks two related questions about that event.
Qui va aprovar quina despesa?
Who approved which expense? — Pair each approver with an expense.
Qui va aprovar la despesa i quan?
Who approved the expense, and when? — Identify one approver and one time.
On i com es van conèixer?
Where and how did they meet? — Two coordinated circumstances of the same event.
Coordination with i is especially natural when the two unknowns are independent circumstances. With negation, ni may coordinate alternatives inside an embedded question: No sabem qui ho va autoritzar ni quan. This does not necessarily demand a pair for every person.
Do not mechanically translate every English “who and when” as a true multiple structure. Choose between a pair-list (qui va fer què) and coordinated requests (qui ho va fer i quan) according to the answer you need.
Prepositions and Catalan government
Every interrogative keeps the preposition selected by the Catalan verb or adjective. English frequently strands that preposition; Catalan normally fronts the whole prepositional phrase or leaves the whole phrase in situ.
Amb qui ha negociat cada delegació i sobre què?
Who has each delegation negotiated with, and about what?
De qui depèn cada equip i de quin pressupost disposa?
Who does each team report to, and what budget does it have?
The second sentence is intentionally formal and coordinates two mappings. Both dependre and disposar select de. Translating Spanish government can also fail: Catalan says parlar amb algú and pensar en una qüestió, not forms built by mechanically preserving Spanish con or en in every lexical combination. Check the verb's Catalan complement pattern; the prepositional-question guide develops this principle.
Clitics still express established arguments. In a topic–comment structure, they can coexist with an interrogative that asks for another role:
Aquests expedients, qui els ha lliurat a quin departament?
As for these files, who delivered them to which department? — Fronted topic, resumed by els.
Here aquests expedients is not a third interrogative; it is a reordered topic. The clitic els maintains the object's dependency inside the question.
Scope, negation, and quantifiers
Multiple questions become difficult when a quantifier or negation can take different scope. Consider Qui no ha retornat quin llibre? It can ask for person–book pairs among missing returns, but without context a listener may wonder whether each person failed to return a particular book or which people returned none.
Prefer an explicit paraphrase:
De cada lector, digueu quin llibre encara no ha retornat.
For each reader, say which book they still haven't returned. — Each person is paired with one outstanding book.
Quins lectors no han retornat cap llibre?
Which readers haven't returned any books? — The negation has scope over any book.
The contrast is semantic, not cosmetic. Quin llibre requests an identity; cap llibre under negation means “no book.” Replacing one with the other changes the answer set.
Embedded multiple interrogatives
The same dependencies can occur inside a larger clause. The entire sentence may be a statement, so no question mark is needed.
Encara no han aclarit qui va prometre què a cadascun dels proveïdors.
They still haven't clarified who promised what to each of the suppliers.
L'informe detalla quina oficina va tramitar cada sol·licitud i en quina data.
The report details which office processed each application and on what date. — Formal embedded and coordinated interrogatives.
Embedded status does not remove interrogative identity: què retains its accent, and selected prepositions remain. The matrix predicate determines mood and tense; multiple wh-phrases do not trigger a special mood by themselves. See embedded questions.
Decision table
| Information needed | Best pattern | Model |
|---|---|---|
| match agents with objects | front subject; object in situ | Qui ha fet què? |
| match members of two known sets | quin N + verb + quin N | Quin grup ocupa quina sala? |
| ask two circumstances of one event | coordinate with i | On i quan comença? |
| ask about a selected complement | keep its preposition | Qui ha parlat amb qui? |
| avoid a hard three-way question | split or request a list explicitly | Digueu qui ho envia i, per a cadascú, a qui. |
| report the unresolved mapping | embed without question marks | No sabem qui farà què. |
A natural dialogue
—Hem de repartir les entrevistes abans de migdia. —Qui parla amb quin candidat? —Jo parlaré amb l'Èlia, però no sé qui entrevistarà en Saïd. —Doncs fem una llista: cada periodista, un candidat i una hora.
‘We have to assign the interviews before noon.’ ‘Who is speaking with which candidate?’ ‘I'll speak with Èlia, but I don't know who will interview Saïd.’ ‘Then let's make a list: each journalist, one candidate, and one time.’
The first question requests journalist–candidate pairs. In the embedded question, qui alone is unknown and is the subject of entrevistarà; en Saïd is the human object. The team then replaces a potentially confusing three-variable question with an explicit list format.
Common Mistakes
❌ Qui què ha reservat per al taller?
Incorrect multiple fronting in a neutral Catalan question.
✅ Qui ha reservat què per al taller?
Who booked what for the workshop?
❌ Qui ha col·laborat amb cada investigadora amb?
Incorrect English-style preposition stranding.
✅ Qui ha col·laborat amb cada investigadora?
Who has collaborated with each researcher?
❌ Qui ha parlat con qui després de la reunió?
Incorrect preservation of the Spanish preposition con.
✅ Qui ha parlat amb qui després de la reunió?
Who spoke with whom after the meeting?
❌ Fa qui entregar què demà?
Incorrect English do-support and nonfinite main verb.
✅ Qui entregarà què demà al matí?
Who will deliver what tomorrow morning?
Short correction task
Repair each question and decide whether it requests a pair-list or two independent facts.
- Qui quin ordinador utilitza?
- Qui confia cada responsable en?
- On quan obriran la nova oficina?
Qui utilitza quin ordinador?
Who uses which computer? — Pair-list.
En qui confia cada responsable?
Who does each manager trust? — A person-to-person mapping.
On i quan obriran la nova oficina?
Where and when will they open the new office? — Two independent circumstances.
Key Takeaways
- Catalan usually fronts one interrogative phrase and leaves other interrogatives in situ.
- Pair-list questions map every value in one set to a value in another; coordinated questions simply request two facts.
- Keep selected prepositions with qui or què, and preserve topic-resuming clitics.
- Negation and quantifiers can change which pairs are requested, so paraphrase when scope is unclear.
- Multiple interrogatives can be embedded without question marks; their accents and dependencies remain intact.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Question WordsA1 — How to ask for people, things, choices, quantities, manner, time, place, and reasons with Catalan interrogatives and the prepositions they require.
- Questions with PrepositionsA2 — How Catalan keeps required prepositions before qui, què, quin, and on in questions, including purpose, destination, source, and verb government.
- Subject Position in QuestionsA2 — How Catalan places, omits, or postpones a question's subject according to grammatical role, information status, and contrast rather than English auxiliary inversion.
- Embedded QuestionsA2 — How Catalan places questions inside statements and larger questions with si or an interrogative phrase, declarative punctuation, and non-inverted word order.
- Scope and Quantifier InterpretationC1 — Learn how Catalan word order, negation, modals, quantifiers, and focus particles determine which part of a sentence has semantic scope.