"who" in seven languages
Meaningwho
Spanish
quién
/kjen/
inherited
plural: quiénes
From the accusative QUEM; the only sister with a plural.
French
qui
/ki/
inherited
Italian
chi
/ki/
inherited
Portuguese
quem
/kẽj/
inherited
Romanian
cine
/ˈtʃine/
inherited
Catalan
qui
/ki/
inherited
English
who
/hu/
Indo-European kin · PIE *kʷo- / *kʷi-
English → ItalianwhochiDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche).What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
QUĪ (acc. QUEM)‘who’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
French qui and Italian chi are the same sound in different spellings. Spanish quién comes from the object form QUEM, so it kept a final n.
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¿Quién es?
- frC'est qui ?
- itChi è?
- ptQuem é?
- roCine e?
- caQui és?
- enWho is it?