FlexiLingoIn one line
French does not emphasise with the voice — it puts the part it wants to highlight inside
c'est … qui/que.
The forms on this page
| Form | Means | Sound |
|---|---|---|
c'est … qui | it is … who — when you spotlight the subject | /sɛ … ki/ |
c'est … que | it is … that — when you spotlight anything else | /sɛ … kə/ |
The table
| Highlighted | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| subject | c'est … qui /sɛ … ki/ | C'est Marie qui a payé. /sɛ ma.ʁi ki a pe.je/ |
| object | c'est … que /sɛ … kə/ | C'est le livre que je veux. /sɛ lə livʁ kə ʒə vø/ |
| place or time | c'est … que /sɛ … kə/ | C'est demain que je pars. /sɛ də.mɛ̃ kə ʒə paʁ/ |
| with a preposition | c'est … que /sɛ … kə/ | C'est à Paris que j'habite. /sɛ.t‿a pa.ʁi kə ʒa.bit/ |
The qui/que difference is the usual one: does a verb follow, or a subject?
qui+ verb —C'est moi qui ai raison.que+ subject —C'est ça que je veux.
Why the structure is needed
English emphasises with the voice, and can put stress on any word it likes:
| English | What is highlighted |
|---|---|
| Marie paid. | the subject |
| Marie paid the bill. | the object |
French cannot do this. French stress falls on the last syllable of each rhythmic group and cannot be moved. So the language uses a structure instead:
| French | What is highlighted | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
C'est Marie qui a payé. | the subject | /sɛ ma.ʁi ki a pe.je/ |
C'est l'argent qu'elle a donné. | the object | /sɛ laʁ.ʒɑ̃ kɛl a dɔ.ne/ |
English has exactly this construction and calls it a cleft sentence — "It was Marie who paid", "It's tomorrow that I'm leaving". The difference is frequency. In English it is a marked, slightly formal choice; in French it is the ordinary, everyday way of stressing something, heard several times a minute in conversation.
So the rule for producing natural French is: wherever you would raise your voice in English, build a
c'est … qui/quein French.
Which word the verb agrees with
When the subject is highlighted, the verb agrees with it, not with c'est:
C'est moi qui ai raison. /sɛ mwa ki e ʁɛ.zɔ̃/ | not qui a /ki a/ |
C'est toi qui as tort. /sɛ twa ki a tɔʁ/ | not qui a /ki a/ |
C'est nous qui sommes venus. /sɛ nu ki sɔm və.ny/ | not qui est /ki ɛ/ |
Ce sont eux qui ont décidé. /sə sɔ̃.t‿ø ki ɔ̃ de.si.de/ | plural → ce sont /sə sɔ̃/ |
C'est moi qui aicatches everybody out, because English says "it's me who has" or "it's me that is". French agrees withmoi, so the verb goes into thejeform.
In speech
c'est euxis heard, but in formal writingce sont euxis correct.
ce qui and ce que — emphasis without naming the thing
When you do not want to name the thing itself:
| Structure | Example |
|---|---|
Ce qui … c'est … /sə ki sɛ/ | Ce qui m'intéresse, c'est la musique. /sə ki mɛ̃.te.ʁɛs sɛ la my.zik/ |
Ce que … c'est … /sə kə sɛ/ | Ce que je veux, c'est partir. /sə kə ʒə vø sɛ paʁ.tiʁ/ |
Ce dont … c'est … /sə dɔ̃ sɛ/ | Ce dont j'ai besoin, c'est du temps. /sə dɔ̃ ʒe bə.zwɛ̃ sɛ dy tɑ̃/ |
Three choices, based on the role of that thing in the second clause:
| When that thing is … | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
ce qui | the subject | /sə ki/ |
ce que | the direct object | /sə kə/ |
ce dont | introduced by de | /sə dɔ̃/ |
This is the English "what I want is …" construction, and it works the same way — "What interests me is music". English uses one word, "what", where French chooses among three.
Emphasis by doubling the pronoun
A simpler and more colloquial route — put the stressed pronoun in front:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
Moi, je préfère le thé. | me, I prefer tea | /mwa ʒə pʁe.fɛʁ lə te/ |
Lui, il ne comprend rien. | him, he understands nothing | /lɥi il nə kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃ ʁjɛ̃/ |
Le café, je l'aime pas. | coffee, I don't like it | /lə ka.fe ʒə lɛm pa/ |
Ce livre, je l'ai déjà lu. | that book, I've already read it | /sə livʁ ʒə le de.ʒa ly/ |
In the last two the noun has moved to the front and its pronoun has stayed behind. This is very common in speech and completely natural.
English does this too, in casual speech — "that book, I've already read it" — so the shape is available; it is simply far more frequent in French.
Examples
| English | French | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| It was Marie who paid. | C'est Marie qui a payé. | /sɛ ma.ʁi ki a pe.je/ |
| It's this book that I want. | C'est ce livre que je veux. | /sɛ sə livʁ kə ʒə vø/ |
| It's tomorrow that I'm leaving. | C'est demain que je pars. | /sɛ də.mɛ̃ kə ʒə paʁ/ |
| It's in Paris that I live. | C'est à Paris que j'habite. | /sɛ.t‿a pa.ʁi kə ʒa.bit/ |
| I'm the one who's right. | C'est moi qui ai raison. | /sɛ mwa ki e ʁɛ.zɔ̃/ |
| They're the ones who decided. | Ce sont eux qui ont décidé. | /sə sɔ̃.t‿ø ki ɔ̃ de.si.de/ |
| What I want is to leave. | Ce que je veux, c'est partir. | /sə kə ʒə vø sɛ paʁ.tiʁ/ |
| What I need is time. | Ce dont j'ai besoin, c'est du temps. | /sə dɔ̃ ʒe bə.zwɛ̃ sɛ dy tɑ̃/ |
| Me, I prefer tea. | Moi, je préfère le thé. | /mwa ʒə pʁe.fɛʁ lə te/ |
| That film, I've already seen it. | Ce film, je l'ai déjà vu. | /sə film ʒə le de.ʒa vy/ |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
C'est moi qui a raison. | C'est moi qui ai raison. | The verb agrees with moi |
C'est Marie que a payé. | C'est Marie qui a payé. | A verb follows, so qui |
C'est le livre qui je veux. | C'est le livre que je veux. | A subject follows, so que |
Ce que m'intéresse | Ce qui m'intéresse | The thing is the subject of intéresser |
C'est de temps que j'ai besoin. | Ce dont j'ai besoin, c'est du temps. | avoir besoin de → dont |
Why French came to need this structure
when stress is not free, syntax has to do the work
In English, stress is free: you can lean on any word and it becomes the focus.
In French, stress falls on the last syllable of each rhythmic group and cannot be moved. So French cannot say "Marie paid, not Paul" by voice alone.
The result: the language built a syntactic device to do what intonation does elsewhere.
English built the same device and hardly uses it, precisely because it does not need to — "It was Marie who paid" sounds emphatic or formal, so English reserves it for special effect.
French has no alternative, so it uses it constantly. That difference in frequency is the practical point: using c'est … qui/que often is not overwriting in French, it is speaking normally. Under-using it is what makes a learner's French sound flat.
A related consequence: because the voice cannot carry the emphasis, a French sentence read aloud with English-style stress patterns sounds wrong even when every word is right.