Que or lo que: the one question
Look at what comes right before the blank. If it is a noun — el libro, la gente, las cosas, algo — the word is que: el libro que leí, las cosas que me gustan, hay algo que tengo que decirte. If there is no noun — the sentence starts with it, or it means what or the thing that — the word is lo que: lo que quiero es dormir, haz lo que quieras, eso no es lo que pedí. And if what comes before it is a whole sentence, the word is lo que too: llegó tarde, lo que me molestó.
The academies' Diccionario panhispánico de dudas states the rule: a relative with no noun in front of it takes its article — el que, la que, lo que — and lo is the one for an idea rather than a thing you could name. That is why que on its own can never mean what. Que also has a second job: it joins two sentences, like English that — creo que tienes razón, dice que viene — and there it takes no lo either.
Every use, in one chart
Two rows in the chart below deserve a second look. The one (that) I want is el que or la que, because the article agrees with the noun you have in mind — el coche, la casa — while lo que is for an idea with no noun at all. And in the last row lo has an adjective inside it: lo cansada que estoy is how tired I am, a pattern the academies record with examples like lo débil que es and lo bien que se está aquí.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| the book (that) I read | el libro que leí |
| the people who live here | la gente que vive aquí |
| I think (that) you're right | creo que tienes razón |
| what I want is to sleep | lo que quiero es dormir |
| do what you like | haz lo que quieras |
| everything (that) I have | todo lo que tengo |
| he was late, which annoyed me | llegó tarde, lo que me molestó |
| harder than I thought | más difícil de lo que pensaba |
| the one (that) I want | el que quiero, la que quiero |
| you have no idea how tired I am | no sabes lo cansada que estoy |
What, three ways: qué, cuál and lo que
English what does three jobs that Spanish keeps apart. Asking, it is qué, with an accent: ¿qué quieres? Asking for one answer out of the possible ones — a name, a number — it is cuál, which has its own quiz. And meaning the thing that, inside a sentence, it is lo que, with no accent: lo que quiero es un café. After verbs like saber and decir both shapes are heard and both are right — no sé qué quieres, no sé lo que quieres — and I don't know what to do is no sé qué hacer.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| What do you want? | ¿Qué quieres? |
| What is your number? | ¿Cuál es tu número? |
| What I want is a coffee. | Lo que quiero es un café. |
| I don't know what you want. | No sé qué quieres. No sé lo que quieres. |
| I don't know what to do. | No sé qué hacer. |
| What a day! | ¡Qué día! |
Can you leave out que, like English leaves out that?
No. English drops that all the time — the job I have, the things I like, I think you're right — and Spanish keeps que: el trabajo que tengo, las cosas que me gustan, creo que tienes razón. A relative que is never left out. The joining que is dropped mostly in formal letters (le ruego me conteste) and in popular speech in Mexico and Central America, and the academies call keeping it the normal choice in Spanish today.
Our own data shows the habit. Two of the eight writing corrections our mistake corpus keeps as examples put back a relative que the learner had dropped: las cosas que me gustan, el trabajo nuevo que tengo. It is the English sentence, translated word for word, with the one word English can do without.
Lo que, el que or lo cual?
Three relatives look alike and do different jobs. Lo que is for an idea with no noun: lo que dijiste, lo que más me gusta. El que, la que, los que and las que are for a noun you have in mind but have not repeated — de los dos coches, prefiero el que es rojo; esas no son las que pedí — and they agree with it. Lo cual is the more formal twin of lo que after a comma, pointing back at a whole sentence: llegó tarde, lo cual me molestó. The academies record that it always needs that sentence in front of it, so it never opens one the way lo que does — lo que quiero, never lo cual quiero.
Why do English speakers mix them up?
Because English spreads one job over that, which, who, what and nothing at all. The book that I read, the book which I read and the book I read are three ways to say one thing in English, and Spanish has one: el libro que leí. What, meaning the thing that, has no single Spanish twin — it becomes lo que, and a learner who met que first writes que. Which pointing back at a whole sentence (he was late, which annoyed me) looks like the which in the book which I read, so it comes out as que instead of lo que. And than before a clause — harder than I thought — sounds like the que of más que, where Spanish wants de lo que. The quiz on this page is built from those four pulls.
There is no first-party error rate on this page yet: our mistake tagger counts ser vs estar, por vs para, the tenses and the object pronouns, not relatives. When it does, the number will sit here, the way it does on the sibling pages. Until then the quiz is the measure.
What comes after que and lo que?
Qué vs cuál is the other half of the what problem — the question words. Haz lo que quieras puts lo que with the subjunctive for whatever you like, which the subjunctive quiz covers, and muy vs mucho is another small word English speakers translate too literally. The free Spanish level test places you on the A1–C2 scale in five minutes; A2 vs B1 Spanish says what changes after the first levels, and how to go from A2 to B1 is the plan.