You may have come across é que in a variety of Portuguese questions and wondered why these extra words are added. The pair of words is technically optional (the meaning stays the same with or without it), but including é que in Portuguese questions is so common that you should typically default to including it. This would be especially wise for beginners because there are not consistent rules for when it can be left out and excluding it can make certain sentences sound very strange.
Where to add é que
É que appears after the interrogative pronouns and adverbs you learned about earlier in the Question unit. In other words, it comes after the “question words”. For example:
- O que é que…?What is…?
- Como é que…?How is…?, What is…?
- Onde é que…?Where is…?
- Quando é que…?When is…?
- Porque é que...?Why is...?
The rest of the question stays the same, continuing in subject, verb, object order, just like in English. É que basically translates to is it that, as in, “Where is it that you want to go?” This may sound redundant in English, but it’s perfectly natural in Portuguese.
Examples
Let’s see some examples of European Portuguese questions with and without the addition of é que:
- Como te chamas?What is your name?(inf.)
- Como é que te chamas?What is your name?(inf.) – Literal: What is it that you call yourself?
- Onde estás?Where are you?
- O que acham?What do you think?(plural)
- Como está?How are you?(formal)
- Quando chegas?When do you arrive?
I hear the phrase Como é que te chamas? when a portuguese person is asking another Portuguese person what the name of something is in English. oe even just “Como é que te nome”?
“Como é que te chamas?” means “What’s your name?” (or more literally, “How are you called?”). To ask what something is called in English, there are other better options, such as “Como é que [isto/isso/aquilo] se chama?” (What’s the name of [this/that]?) 🙂
I hear “como é que se diz? many times when Portuguese people want to ask about the meaning of a word in English.
Your “hot tips” are incredibly helpful. Thank you.
i think it would be helpful to have the audio on these phrases since the “e que” (sorry I can’t figure out how to get the accent marks on my computer) is such a difficult combination to pronounce the way fluent speakers do it.
Thanks for your message! Yes we’re working on adding audio to these. We record the audio in batches, so sometimes the articles are posted ahead of time with just written examples, and then we add in audio later. (P.S. Guide to Typing Accents )
I read your Guide to Accents, and it’s informative, but I want to mention that it could be updated to include a much slicker accent creation tool that comes with Windows Powertoys from Microsoft. With that installed, you key the letter you want to accent and the right arrow at the same time. Let go of the arrow (but keep the letter depressed), and a little accent menu pops up with accents for the letter you keyed. You use the right or left arrow to choose the accent then let go to select it. É facile!
I’m a little confused about pronunciation. I’ve noticed that “que” followed by a word beginning with a vowel is pronounced “kee” as opposed to “kuh” when followed by a word starting with a consonant. Is this a general pronunciation rule and if so how closely should it be followed? Or am I imagining it 😀 ?
No, that’s well spotted and accurate, you’re not imagining it 🙂 You can think of it as a general rule of thumb, that when you have two vowels together (at the end of a word and at the start of the next one), the pronunciation of the first vowel can be affected. This also depends on how fast you’re talking.
Sorry, I’m confused by the final list of examples above = is the initial version without the o que added an awkward and not preferred version? Or is asking either way okay in these examples?
I think I saw in another note that o que can often be dropped after como, and always in “como estás”?
Olá 🙂 The final list of examples is just showing how the two versions (with and without “é que”) are saying pretty much the same thing and are both fine to use. “Como estás” and “Como é que estás” are both perfectly acceptable.
The same situation that is found in French . So I’m ok, as French is my first language!
To ask what something is called in English, there are other better options, such as “Como é que [isto/isso/aquilo] se chama?” (What’s the name of [this/that]?)
So, so would “Como see chama” isto/isso/aquilo be incorrect then?
Olá, Anthony. Your proposed alternative is also perfectly fine 🙂 (just make sure it’s ‘se’ and not ‘see’ – probably just a typo!)
Thank you for the explanations here, especially the opening paragraph and helpful comparisons. It’s just what I needed. Simple and clear!
how do i ask a stranger what their dog’s name is without being gender specific?
You can either 1) omit any direct reference to the dog or 2) advance both possibilities:
1) Como é que se chama? (How is it called?)
2) Como é que se chama o cão ou cadela? (How is the male/female dog called?)
I am really a beginner so forgive my ignorance. Could you say “Como se dize em Ingles” ?
No problem! Yes, you could say Como se diz em inglês? or Como é que se diz em inglês? to ask ‘How do you say [it] in English?’
Many thanks! I appear to be learning something!
I completely understand the use of “é que” in questions. But how about in a statement? I saw a sentence: mas tu é que lavas a louça! (context: I don’t mind cooking, but you’ll be washing the dishes!)
What does “é que” serve here? Can it just be “mas tu tens de lavar a louça”? Muito obrigada!
It’s the same, also there just for emphasis 🙂 It would also be fine to just say “mas tu lavas a louça”/”mas és tu que lavas a louça”/”mas tu tens de lavar a louça”/etc.
Would it be possible to amend these phrases for smart review so they include “is it that”? E.G. o que é que acham = “what is it that you think”, instead of just “what do you think” ? That way it would be easier to practice these using smart review, if I would add them like this I’m afraid I would just be confused
Good question! It’s a tough one and I completely understand how that would make it easier to understand the translation.
However, the reason we don’t add it is that it often sounds unusual or overly formal in English to say “is it that”. We don’t want to give the impression that the same holds true for the Portuguese phrase. Instead, we want to get you used to the idea that both of these mean the same thing. And in fact, the “é que” is included very often, whereas in English it would be pretty rare to say “is it that”.
This “é que is used so often that the translations across our database of phrases would start to get pretty convoluted if we made them literal. (“How is it that you are?” doesn’t sound like something you’d want to say 😁 )
But, if you got “How are you?” as a Smart Review prompt and responded “Como está?”, you would still be correct, even if the answer shown was “Como é que está?” This will come up a lot in Smart Review in general, as there are often multiple ways to say the same thing.
It might trip you up a few times at first, but over time you’ll start to get used to the “é que” showing up often in questions. When you get an open-ended question in Smart Review, you could even challenge yourself to translate it both ways (with and without “é que”).
I noticed that in spoken form the “é que” part appears quite often, but how common is it in written form though? For example in texting between friends or family, what is the most natural way to ask someone where they are? “Onde estás?” or “Onde é que estás?”?
That’s a very interesting question! It’s so natural to us that we don’t realize we do it. “É que” is indeed a very common expression in spoken European Portuguese! It’s easy to say, accentuates what’s being said and sounds natural to us! However there’s no particular rule when it comes to writing. Maybe we tend to try to save time when texting and for that reason we don’t write it as much as we say it. I guess we’d text it if we really wanted to highlight the question. Otherwise we’d just keep it simple: “Onde estás?”
For me, the prononciation of the “é que” is difficult. It took me a while to understand because every single word is linked when people are talking. It is not: como-é-que-estas- is COMOEQUESTAS or ONDéQUESTAS? Everything sounds together….We do the same in french…but of course it is different when it is not your language :d
I also have some problems to understand when we need to add the “o” before the “que”. I read before that the “o” is omitted when there is a noun after the “que”. Is it a general rule?
Yes, we tend to mash the words together a lot! With time and practice, your listening comprehension will improve, for sure.
About your question, you’re right that we don’t use “o” if there’s a noun after “que”. I tried to summarize the rules/guidance about “o” and “que” in this forum post – hope it helps: Practice Portuguese Forum | What the que? ou Que o Que?
When the question starts by Que / O que / Porque, i genuinely dont hear the “é que” in the samples. For exemple in the one with the woman saying “O que é que tu achas” i only hear “K’too achas.” like if O+que+é+que+tu was only 1 syllabus which is very weird. It’s the same with the guy saying “Porque é que tu estas triste?”
The frustrating part is that when i simply get rid of this confusing “é que” thing, i do sound a lot more like them lol.. But i guess it must be a reason why i shouldnt do that?
Yes it does sound quite different when you put it all together at normal speed! Just like how words in English blend together: Do you want to…? -> D’ya wanna..?
Don’t worry, over time with more listening practice it will get easier to hear. In the meantime, maybe try saying it out loud slowly, and then repeating it faster and faster and faster. Eventually the way you say it will sound the same as it is heard. Just a couple quick sounds.
That said, you can usually drop the “é que” and it’s still technically correct. You will still be understood, but in some contexts it will sound a little unusual.
So in which cases should I use it? As a lazy person, I am trying to say as less words as possible. My first thought is: “Ok, if it’s optional and doesn’t provide any weight to my sentence – I won’t use it”. So the question is – why should I add “é que” if I can achieve the same effect without adding it?
You should use it if you want to sound more idiomatic in general, because for some reason, native speakers in Portugal use it a lot. Otherwise, there’s no actual requirement to add “é que” to questions and you will be understood with or without it.
Muito bom
You guys are so great!
You make things so simple 😊
I’ve talked to my colleagues from Portugal about this language aspect, and they said it’s not common at all, and using additional “é que” is more slang than normal, and it indicates that the person who speaks in such manner comes from poor educational background. So I would probably opt out using this construction.
Thank you for your comment! Your colleagues’ perspective probably reflects the reality within their respective social circles, but is not representative of the average perception in Portugal. In any case, as noted in the Learning Note, the addition of “é que” is not required, so there is of course no problem in opting out of it.