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quoi

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rel. pronoun, French

1. what
2. which

int. adv., French

1. what

interjection, French

1. you know
2. like (informal)

Now that you’ve learned that quoi means what, I’m going to totally through a wrench in the spokes.  In does mean what in sentences like:

Tu fais quoi ce week-end? - What are you doing this weekend?

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Quoi de neuf? - What’s new? [What's up?]

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On y va ou quoi? - Are we going or what?

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Quoi? - What?

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(This last one is quite informal and it’s best to say pardon if you missed what someone said.)

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Pretty simple, right?  Nothing too strange or intimidating about those phrases.

Now think about how many times an American speaker uses the word ‘like’ in a given minute; I’m talking outside the context admiration or direct comparison.  Is she really ‘like, your best friend’ or is she actually your best friend?  Its modern use stems from a sensible place–comparing two things in simile using ‘like’–but at this point, most people aren’t even conscious of how much they use the word.

This is a bit like quoi in French.  Its casual and frequent use must have started logically–’Are we going or what?’–but it’s come to be sprinkled into sentences without much literal meaning.  It is a placeholder.  It basically means, ‘you know.’

A typical sentence might translate as, ‘It’s not fair to blame the poor, what, when our government, what, isn’t providing for them, what.’

That’s not a real life example, but you get the idea.  Lest you think people are constantly asking you ‘what,’ it’s best to know that the quoi in question doesn’t really translate literally.  If, however, you were to replace every ‘what’ in the above sentence with ‘you know,’ it starts to sound a bit more familiar, if a bit redundant.  Every language has its quirks, and this happens to be one in French.

For your practice and pleasure, here are a few other useful phrases in which quoi does not quite translate as you’d think:

Il n’y a pas de quoi - You’re welcome; Not at all

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Il y a de quoi - No wonder!; With good reason!

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And finally, a couple of favorite dramatic phrases of mine involving quoi:

Quoi encore? - What now?

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À quoi bon? - What’s the use?

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I’d save the ‘you know’-style quoi for a more fluent date–you might get yourself in trouble sounding so good at casual French.  In the meantime, you can add some new, sensible quoi phrases to your repertoire.