Breakdown of Que provoque ce virus dans le laboratoire ?
dans
in, inside
ce
this (before a noun)
que
what (unstressed)
le laboratoire
the laboratory
le virus
the virus
provoquer
to cause
Questions & Answers about Que provoque ce virus dans le laboratoire ?
How do I turn this into an indirect question, like "He asks what this virus causes"?
You would say: Il demande ce que ce virus provoque dans le laboratoire. In reported speech, the direct question word que (acting as the direct object) becomes ce que. Notice also that the subject and verb go back to their normal order (ce virus provoque) instead of being inverted like in the direct question.
Why does the verb provoque come before the subject ce virus here?
This is a formal structure called stylistic inversion. In French, when a question starts with an interrogative word (like que, où, or quand) and the subject is a noun rather than a pronoun, the verb can be placed right before the subject noun. A more common, everyday way to ask this is: Qu'est-ce que ce virus provoque dans le laboratoire ?
Does provoquer mean "to provoke" or "to cause"?
Why do we use que instead of quoi for "what" here?
You use que at the beginning of a formal question when "what" is the direct object of the verb. You only use quoi if "what" comes after a preposition (like avec quoi meaning "with what") or in informal spoken French where the question word is placed at the end: Ce virus provoque quoi dans le laboratoire ?
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