¿De qué trata la película?

the movie

Breakdown of ¿De qué trata la película?

• de qué: what
• tratar: to be about

Questions & Answers about ¿De qué trata la película?

Why is it de qué instead of just qué?

Because the expression is tratar de when it means to be about.

So Spanish asks literally something like About what does the film deal?

• de = about / of
• qué = what

When a verb needs a preposition, Spanish keeps that preposition before qué in the question:

• La película trata de amor.
• ¿De qué trata la película?

What does trata mean here?

Here trata comes from the verb tratar.

In this sentence, tratar de means:

• to be about
• to deal with

So ¿De qué trata la película? uses trata in the sense of is about, not tries or treats.

Be careful, because tratar de + infinitive can also mean to try to:

• Trato de estudiar. = I try to study.

But with a subject like la película, the meaning is clearly to be about.

Why is it trata and not tratan?