Learn French: Où est-ce qu'on trouve un restaurant sympa ?

Où est-ce qu'on trouve un restaurant sympa ?

Where do we find a nice restaurant?

Breakdown of Où est-ce qu'on trouve un restaurant sympa ?

is it that / do / does (question marker)

Questions & Answers about Où est-ce qu'on trouve un restaurant sympa ?

How does the phrase Où est-ce que work to ask "Where"?

To ask an open question in French, you can take a question word like Où (Where) and add est-ce que right after it. It literally means "Where is it that", but it just acts as a signal that a question is coming. After est-ce que, you just use normal subject-verb order: on trouve (we find).

Why is it qu'on instead of que on?

When short words ending in e, like que, are followed by a word starting with a vowel, the e is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This makes it easier to say smoothly. Since on starts with an o, que on combines into qu'on.

The translation says "Where do we find...", so why doesn't the French sentence use nous for "we"?

In everyday spoken French, people almost always use on instead of nous to mean "we". Even though on is used to mean "we", it always takes the "he/she" (third-person singular) verb form. That is why the verb is trouve and not trouvons.

Why is the adjective sympa placed after restaurant, and is it short for something?