What does qué and que mean?

Question

What does qué and que mean. Whats the difference? like in "hay que barrer y fregar el suelo" and "¿que hay que hacer?". And is this right "¿qué estás llevando hoy?

Answer 1

Qué/qué means what. Que/que means that, to, than, what.

Examples of Qué:

1."¿Qué quieres?" (What do u want?)

Examples of Que:

2."Espero QUE tengas una buena noche." (I hope THAT you have a good night)

3."Hay QUE barrer y fregar el suelo" Hay QUE (it's necessary to) So all together it means "It's neccessary TO sweep and mop the floor"

4."El baloncesto es mejor QUE el beisbol" (Basketball is better THAN baseball)

5."No entiendo LO QUE estás diciendo" (I don't understand WHAT you are saying)

Answers to your questions:

1. "¿Qué hay que hacer?" (What is neccessary TO do? or What needs TO be done?)
2. "¿Qué estás llevando hoy? (If you're asking "What are you wearing today?" then this is right).

Qué can mean "which one" or in an exclamation What a..! que often means who or which when used instead of quien or cual. - 0074b507, Oct 12, 2009

Answer 2

Just to throw in the grammar terms in case you wish to do any research:

qué is called an interrogative pronoun (as is quíen, cuándo, dónde, cómo, cuál, etc.)

que is a relative pronoun that usually introduces a relative or subordinate clause.

And is this right "¿Qué estás llevando hoy?

Basically yes, it is, but it depends on what meaning of llevar that you are attempting. If you are asking "What are you wearing today?" then you may need a pronominal pronoun (te), but that has nothing to do with our topic.

Answer 3

Qué is a question. Use it when you're asking "what" or are uncertain about "what". Que is a statement. Use it when you're referring to something.

Hay que barrer y fregar el suelo. The floor needs to be swept and mopped. (Literally, "There is a need to sweep and mop the floor.") You've chosen a tough example here, because "hay que" is a turn of phrase, not a literal word-for-word translation. But since it's not used to ask a question, you can still apply the principal rules I gave above.

¿Qué hay que hacer? What needs to be done? (Literally, "What is there to do?") The first use is for asking a question about what exists, and the second use is in that same turn of phrase.