Lo que instead of qué?

Question

No sé qué hacer. No se lo que hacer.

Would both of these be correct translations for "I don't know what to do" or would only the sentence with "lo que" be correct?

Also, is "¿Lo que va a hacer esta noche?" grammatically wrong because the "lo que" needs to be "Qué" instead? Can "lo que" ever be used in a question as the first word?

Answer 1

Many times when we say "what" as in; Tell me what you know. We could substitute "that which" Tell me that which you know. That's where we use "lo que" in Spanish.

Lo que sé de este este asunto no es mucho. What (that which) I know about this matter is not much.

In your question: What are you going to do tonight? is a straight out question: "Qué vas a hacer esta noche."

BUT:

Tell me what (that which) you did last night. "Dime lo que hiciste anoche."

Thank you Daniela! How about my first sentence? No sé qué hacer - Ramonaspiker, Sep 4, 2016

Just like English. "I don't know what to do" Practically word for word. (It's not a "that which") It's almost like a question. - Daniela2041, Sep 4, 2016

Thanks Daniela! Personally, "that which" sounds very confusing/awful to my ears. Is there any other way to tell the difference? - Ramonaspiker, Sep 4, 2016

Answer 2

I agree with Daniela.

Can "lo que" ever be used in a question as the first word?

To use lo que in your example, you would have to say: ¿Qué es lo que va a hacer esta noche? almost the first word. This way would be used only to emphasize ¿Qué es ...?

Thank you Julian! How about my first sentence? No sé qué hacer - Ramonaspiker, Sep 4, 2016