Qui té la culpa?

Qui means who. It is the interrogative word used to ask about a person.

So Qui té la culpa? literally starts with Who... ?

Because qui is treated as grammatically singular in this kind of question.

• qui = who
• té = has / is the one who has

So Catalan uses the 3rd person singular form:

• Qui té la culpa? = Who is to blame?
• literally: Who has the blame/fault?

Even though the answer could refer to more than one person, the question word itself takes singular agreement.

The accent in té helps distinguish it from te.

• té = has (from tenir, to have)
• te = you in some uses, or tea in some contexts depending on dialect/spelling conventions

So the accent is important because it marks a different word and also helps with pronunciation.

La culpa means the fault or the blame.

In Catalan, culpa is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine singular article la:

• la culpa = the fault / the blame

This is why the sentence is not el culpa.

Catalan often uses the definite article where English may not.

In English, we often say:

• Who is to blame?

But Catalan commonly says:

• Qui té la culpa?
• literally: Who has the blame/fault?

Using la here is normal and idiomatic in Catalan.

Yes, literally that is very close.

• qui = who
• té = has
• la culpa = the fault / the blame

So word-for-word it is Who has the blame/fault?

But the natural English translation is usually:

• Who is to blame?
• Whose fault is it?

Catalan often forms questions simply by using an interrogative word at the beginning, without needing an auxiliary like English do or inversion like is in the same way.

So Catalan says:

• Qui té la culpa?

English does not normally say Who has the blame?, even though that is close literally. Instead, English uses a more idiomatic structure such as:

• Who is to blame?
• Whose fault is it?

The Catalan word order itself is straightforward:

• question word + verb + object

Yes. De qui és la culpa? is also correct and means Whose fault is it?

The two sentences are very close in meaning:

• Qui té la culpa? = Who is to blame?
• De qui és la culpa? = Whose fault is it?

The first focuses more on who has the blame.
The second focuses more on to whom the fault belongs.

In everyday use, both are natural.

It is neutral and works in both everyday and fairly standard contexts.

• It is not slang.
• It is not especially formal.
• It is a normal, common way to ask the question.

So you can use it in regular conversation without sounding strange.

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

kee TEH luh KOOL-puh

A few notes:

• qui sounds roughly like kee
• té has a clear stressed e
• culpa has the stress on the first syllable: CUL-pa

In IPA, a Central Catalan pronunciation is approximately:

/ki ˈte lə ˈkul.pə/

Depending on dialect, the vowels may sound a little different.

That would sound unusual in this meaning. The normal expression is tenir la culpa.

So learners should remember it as a set phrase:

• tenir la culpa = to be at fault / to be to blame

Examples:

• Jo no tinc la culpa. = It’s not my fault.
• Tu tens la culpa. = It’s your fault.

Using the article is the standard pattern.

Not really. It is better to treat tenir la culpa as an idiomatic expression.

Depending on context, it may mean:

• to be to blame
• to be at fault
• to be responsible

So although the literal pieces are helpful for understanding, the natural English translation should usually be idiomatic rather than word-for-word.

Here are some very common ones:

• Jo tinc la culpa. = It’s my fault.
• Tu tens la culpa. = It’s your fault.
• Ell té la culpa. = It’s his fault.
• Ella té la culpa. = It’s her fault.
• Nosaltres tenim la culpa. = It’s our fault.
• No tinc la culpa. = It’s not my fault.
• Qui en té la culpa? = Who is to blame for it?

These help you see that tenir la culpa behaves like a normal verb phrase built around tenir.