Breakdown of ¿De qué trata la película?
de
of
qué
what
la película
the movie
tratar
to be about, to deal with (a book, a film)
Questions & Answers about ¿De qué trata la película?
Why is it De qué instead of putting the "about" at the end like in English?
In Spanish, sentences cannot end with a preposition. If a verb phrase uses a preposition (like tratar de, meaning "to be about"), that preposition must go before the question word. So, "What is it about?" becomes ¿De qué trata? (literally "About what does it deal?").
Doesn't tratar mean "to treat" or "to try"?
It depends on how you use it! By itself, tratar means "to treat". When you use tratar de followed by a noun, it means "to be about" or "to deal with". If you use tratar de followed by an infinitive verb, it means "to try to" (for example, Trato de aprender, meaning "I try to learn").
I often hear se trata de. Could we say ¿De qué se trata la película? here?
In strict standard Spanish, no. The phrase tratarse de is impersonal, meaning it doesn't take a specific subject like la película. You can ask ¿De qué trata la película? (What is the movie about?) or simply ¿De qué se trata? (What is it about?), but combining them is considered incorrect, even though you might hear native speakers occasionally do it in fast, casual speech.
Why is the subject la película at the very end of the sentence?
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