WHICH and WHAT
You'll already have grasped from WHICH 05 that English tends to use 'what' instead of 'which', for something fairly non-specific, or not-previously-specified.
French tends to use 'which', or 'that which', a little more than English (now) does. You will need to learn to gauge what fits where.
| What time is it? |
Quelle heure est-il? |
| Which of the loaves of bread do you prefer? |
Lequel des pains préférez-vous? |
| Which of the televisions do you prefer? |
Laquelle des télévisions préférez-vous? |
| Which books are interesting? |
Quels livres sont intéressants? |
Note that 'quel', 'quelle', 'quels', 'quelles' for 'which' or 'what' need to *agree* with the noun. A fairly good guideline for choosing one of the 'quel' family (instead of a 'lequel' variable) is where you could say 'what' as opposed to 'which', in English - but only if referring to something *specific*.
|
What a pity! |
Quel dommage! |
|
What a surprise! |
Quelle surprise! |
|
The last one below doesn't refer to anything specific - so we're back to the non-specific 'ce que' that you met in WHICH 05.
| Tell me which television you would like. |
Dites-moi quelle télévision vous voudriez. |
| Tell me which one (of the televisions) you would like. |
Dites-moi laquelle vous voudriez. |
| Tell me what (ie that which) you would like. |
Dites-moi ce que vous voudriez. |