Què és allò?

A careful Central Catalan pronunciation is roughly keh ez ah-YOH?

In IPA, a common pronunciation is /ˈkɛ ˈez əˈʎɔ/.

A few notes:

• què sounds like keh, with an open e
• és sounds like ez
• allò has the ll sound typical of Catalan, often like the lli in some pronunciations of million, though this varies by accent
• the stress in allò falls on the last syllable because of the accent: allÒ

Depending on dialect, the exact sounds can vary a bit.

The accent in què helps distinguish it from que, which is a very common word meaning things like that, which, or than, depending on context.

So:

• què = what
• que = usually that/which or a linking word

The accent also shows that the vowel is stressed.

Catalan uses normal question structure here without needing extra support words like English do.

The structure is:

• què = what
• és = is
• allò = that over there / that thing

So literally it is something like:

• What is that?

This word order is completely natural in Catalan. English and Catalan happen to match pretty closely in this kind of question.

Allò is a demonstrative pronoun. It usually means that, especially that over there, or that thing.

Catalan often distinguishes three degrees of distance:

• això = this
• allò = that over there / that yonder
• sometimes eso-type distinctions from other languages are not mapped exactly the same way in Catalan

In practice, allò often points to something farther away, less immediate, or less clearly identified than això.

Both can refer to a thing, but they differ in distance or psychological closeness.

Usually:

• Què és això? = What is this?
• Què és allò? = What is that? or What is that over there?

So if something is near the speaker, això is more likely. If it is farther away, allò is more likely.

In real speech, usage can vary somewhat by dialect and situation, but that is the basic contrast learners should know.

Catalan, like Spanish, has two verbs related to English to be:

• ser → forms like és
• estar → forms like està

Here és is used because the question is asking about identity or what something is.

So:

• Què és allò? = asking what that thing is
• On està allò? = asking where that thing is located

A simple rule:

• use ser for identity, classification, definition
• use estar more for location, states, and conditions

Yes, but it changes the meaning slightly.

• Què és allò? specifically points to something: What is that?
• Què és? means What is it? or What is this/that?, depending on context

So allò is there to identify the thing you are pointing at or referring to.

Here it is a pronoun, because it stands on its own.

Compare:

• Què és allò? → allò = that thing → pronoun
• aquell cotxe → aquell modifies cotxe → adjective/determiner

So in your sentence, allò does not describe a noun that follows it; it replaces the noun entirely.

Catalan often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not necessary. This is because the verb form already gives useful information.

In és, the subject is not expressed as a separate word, and that is perfectly normal. The sentence works because allò is the thing being identified.

English usually requires it in What is it?, but Catalan does not always need an equivalent placeholder pronoun.

Yes, in standard Catalan you normally use just the final question mark:

• Què és allò?

Unlike Spanish, Catalan does not normally use an opening question mark.

So in punctuation, this sentence looks very similar to English.

Usually què means what, not which.

If English would use which before a noun, Catalan often uses:

• quin / quina / quins / quines

For example:

• Quin llibre és? = Which book is it?

But when asking What is that?, què is the correct choice:

• Què és allò?

It is basically neutral and completely normal.

You can use it in everyday conversation without sounding especially formal or especially casual. The level of formality would depend more on your tone and the wider conversation than on this sentence itself.

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• Què és això? = What is this?
• Què és aquell objecte? = What is that object? more specific
• Això què és? = also natural, with a slightly different emphasis
• Allò què és? = also possible when you want to emphasize the thing you are pointing at

So Què és allò? is very natural, but Catalan also allows other word orders and demonstratives depending on emphasis and distance.