Learn French: Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ? - Have you seen the insect that is walking on the table?

Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ?

Have you seen the insect that is walking on the table?

Breakdown of Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ?

you (informal singular)

Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ?

Why do we use qui here instead of que?

qui translates to "who", "which", or "that" when it acts as the subject of the next verb—meaning it is doing the action. Here, the insect is doing the walking, so we use qui. If the insect were the object of the action (for example, "the insect that I saw"), we would use que.

How do I know which form of the verb to use after qui?

The verb after qui must agree with the noun that qui replaces. Since qui is replacing l'insecte (a singular noun, like "it"), the verb takes the il/elle/on form: marche. If it were plural (les insectes), it would be qui marchent.

Why is marche translated as "is walking" instead of "walks"?

French doesn't have a separate "present continuous" tense (verb forms like "is walking" or "are doing") like English does. The standard French present tense marche covers both "walks" and "is walking", and we just choose the one that sounds most natural in the English translation.

The first verb (as vu) is in the past tense. Why is the second verb (marche) in the present?