qu'est-ce que je suis ?
The English phrase "what am I?" is translated into French as qu'est-ce que je suis ?
What does it mean word for word?
Literally, qu'est-ce que je suis ? translates to "what is it that I am?", composed of qu'est-ce que (what is it that) and je suis (I am).
How does it change in a sentence?
The question uses the standard French interrogative structure qu'est-ce que followed by the subject and the verb.
Did you know?
- While the phrase asks 'what am I', the word suis is a linguistic oddity that actually owes more to the Latin word for 'I was' than the Latin word for 'I am'.
- The words qu'est-ce que and quoi are actually 'doublets'. This means they are siblings that grew from the same ancient root but evolved into different sounds.
- The 's' at the end of suis was not part of the original word. It was added much later by French speakers to make it look more like the second person form 'tu es'.
Examples in context
- Monsieur, que suis-je pour vous ?Sir, what am I to you?
- Vous êtes mon collègue.You are my colleague.
- Qu'est-ce que je suis pour toi ?What am I to you?
- Si je ne suis pas un artiste, qu'est-ce que je suis ?If I am not an artist, what am I?
Example conversation
Manon and Hugo are playing a guessing game.
- ManonJe pense à un animal. Qu'est-ce que je suis ?I am thinking of an animal. What am I?
- HugoEst-ce que tu as des plumes ?Do you have feathers?
- ManonOui, j'ai des plumes et je suis bleue.Yes, I have feathers and I am blue.
- HugoTu es un perroquet !You are a parrot!
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries je, que, suis, CC BY-SA 4.0.
