# Quelle



## my-own-fantasy

Salut,
Does the word "quelle" mean "who"?
EXAMPLE:
*Quelle est l'une des plus fortes influences sur ton comportement aujourd'hui?*


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## Canard

quelle => quelle *influence*


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## my-own-fantasy

Canard said:


> quelle => quelle *influence*


Je m'excuse, mais je ne comprends pas qu'est ce que tu essaies de dire...  Cette phrase est d'une page francais et je pense qu'il n'y sont pas des erreurs...


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## nofancypants

Which or what, usually.


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> Which or what, usually.


Is it possible for it to mean who though, nofancypants?


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## nofancypants

I think it means: What is one of the strongest influences on your behaviour nowadays?


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## nofancypants

No, who would be "Qui".


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> I think it means: Which is the strongest influence on your behaviour nowadays?


..... I do understand that, nofancypants, but it doesn't state what the possible influences are, so it still would not make sense unfortunately...


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## nofancypants

Do you want to say: Who is the strongest influence on your behaviour nowadays?


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## nofancypants

Oh i see, umm, what are the sentences before and after then?


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> No, who would be "Qui".


Yes, but here is a link example that states otherwise...
http://www.wordreference.com/fren/quelle


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## Canard

I was indicating what the quelle referred to, not making a correction.


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> Oh i see, umm, what are the sentences before and after then?


I'm afraid there are none... it is a mere one phrase question that must be answered.


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## my-own-fantasy

Canard said:


> I was indicating what the quelle referred to, not making a correction.


Oh, je m'excuse Canard! Je comprends maintenant!


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## my-own-fantasy

Hmm... this is what I mean. There are no sentences before or after so I figured that it had to mean "who" because there were no choices if it meant "which". And, if it does mean what, wouldn't that be "quoi"... And how would a thing be an influence?


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## nofancypants

Well, in the link you sent, they listed one of the translations as "whom", not "who", and "Whom is one of the strongest influences on your behaviour nowadays?" doesn't entirely make sense...they mean it in the sense of e.g. "de quel?" = "of whom?"

So I think it's probably "What is one of the strongest influences on your behaviour nowadays?". Otherwise they would have put "Qui est"...then again a native speaker might completely undermine what I'm saying!


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## nofancypants

Quelle can mean what as well though, cos you can't really say Quoi est...and maybe they mean an influence like television or relationships with friends or something?


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> Quelle can mean what as well though, cos you can't really say Quoi est...and maybe they mean an influence like television or something?


You do have a good point there, nofancypants, but if they wanted to mean "what" couldn't they say "qu'est ce que c'est...." I do know what you mean though, if it does mean "what."


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## expenseroso

I don't know much about french, but I think that quel can only mean "whom" if it's used as an adjective. When it's used to frame a question it means which/what. 

Also, I think the sentence more properly reads: 

What is *one* of the strongest influences on your behavior today?


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## nofancypants

"Qu'est-ce que c'est" means "what is it/this/that", it's a kinda specialist phrase (like, you can't say "Qu'est-ce qu'est"), so that wouldn't really fit here.
"Quel/Quelle est" is the main way of saying "What is or Which is".

Does that make sense to you?


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## nofancypants

By the way expenseroso, I don't really understand - how can "whom" be used as an adjective?


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## my-own-fantasy

nofancypants said:


> "Qu'est-ce que c'est" means "what is it/this/that", it's a kinda specialist phrase (like, you can't say "Qu'est-ce qu'est"), so that wouldn't really fit here.
> "Quel/Quelle est" is the main way of saying "What is or Which is".
> 
> Does that make sense to you?


Yes, nofancypants, this does make sense to me now, as if television, or video games could be an influence. Besides, the next question is 
"donne l'exemple d'une technique employee par les publicitaires pour vendre un produit">
Which helps "what" or "which" fit better.


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## my-own-fantasy

But, one more thing:
Couldn't a what still be a who? A noun is a person place or thing...


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## nofancypants

Well, I wouldn't have thought so, because people, places and things are referred to by different question words aren't they?

E.g. if someone asked you "What influences you", you wouldn't be able to reply with "My mother", you'd have to say "My mother's *advice*" or, if you're talking about a place, "*Paris* and its *culture*" - but if the question was "Who influences you" you would have to reply with the person herself as it wouldn't make sense to say "My mother's advice".

Mother, advice and Paris are all nouns, that's true - but as you can see from my long winded explanation, What can only be applied to places and things, and Who can only be applied to people.

So, in a nutshell - I don't think a what can still be a who! Lol.


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## nofancypants

OK, this is really confusing so we'll just make a little list:

The main ways you express the word "what" in French are:

Quoi = a conversational expression, like "What?!" - "Quoi?!"  (or sometimes "Hein?!".  You use "Comment?" if you are in polite company.)

Qu'est-ce que = as in "Tell me" - "Qu'est-ce que tu fais?" (What are you doing?)

Que* = can be used in the same way as Qu'est-ce que, but you have to invert the verb, e.g. "Que fais-tu?" (What are you doing?)
*Be careful, because "que" can mean so many other things too!

Quel/Quelle = Asking you what something is, out of a number of things.  If you can replace the word with "which" as well, use Quel.

e.g. Quel couleur est-il? = What colour is it?/Which (out of all the colours imaginable) is it?
Quelle voiture est-ce que tu as achete? = What car did you buy?/Which (out of all the cars in the showroom) did you buy?

There are loads of others which you can find actually if you simply type "what" into word reference, I just found out!

But yeah, so none of those words could refer to a person, you would only use "qui" in that context.


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## JeanDeSponde

The only way the sentence could use "who" would be if "l'influence" meant "la personne qui vous a influencé":
_Who was the most influent on your behaviour today?
_But this is slightly different from _what was the most influent..._
_Quel/Quelle_  cannot be translated as "who"/"whom", unless it explicitely refers to a human being, as in:
_Quelle est la personne qui... / Who is it that...
Quelle est la plus grande vedette de cinéma / who is the biggest movie star
_


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## Babbana

Canard is right that in this sentence quelle refers to influence.  I read the sentence as something like "what are the most important influences on his behaviour today?"


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## JeanDeSponde

Babbana said:


> Canard is right that in this sentence quelle refers to influence. [...]


Absolutely right.



Babbana said:


> [...]I read the sentence as something like "what are the most important influences on his behaviour today?"


Yes, this is the most straightforward way to read it indeed.
I had to twist it a bit to shoehorn "who" inside; but this needed considering _influence_ as a metonymy for _la personne qui exerce une influence_.
Without this, no way for "who"...


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## Babbana

I`m not sure how to get the originql posting on my screen while I reply, so I was writing from (a rqther poor) memory!  Reading your quote again, I would say:  "Name (what is) one of the most important influences on your behaviour today."


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## my-own-fantasy

Merci beaucoup tou le monde pour toute l'aide!


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