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I've been having trouble looking for ways to say "what happened", "what's happening", and "what will happen" in French.

I feel it's "Ce qui s'a passé", "Ce qui se passe", and "Ce qui se passera".

Also, can someone clear up interrogative futur simple sentence structure?

1 Answer 1

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You were close - "Ce qui se passe" and "Ce qui se passera" are both good, colloquial structures. You could also use "Ce qui va se passer" as an alternative.

"Ce qui s'a passé," however, is incorrect because "se passer" is a reflexive verb, which means that in the past tense it uses "être."

So you get "Ce qui s'est passé" instead.

Now, if you are asking "What happened," "What's happening," or, "What will happen?" you will need to change those phrases a little bit, using interrogative structure.

In the order you asked, you would say:

"Qu'est qui s'est passé ?"

"Qu'est-ce qui se passe ?"

"Qu'est-ce qui se passera ? / Qu'est-ce qui va se passer ?"

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  • Ah merci :D J'ai oublé que passer est un verbe reflechi(?) Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 4:17
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    @MarcoRubenAbuyuanLlanes De rien ! Ce sont des verbes pronominaux ;)
    – cccg03
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 4:35
  • A noter qu'on peut aussi dire la formes "Que se passe-t-il" (aux 3 temps). (cf "Biouman" des Inconnus :D)
    – Random
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 7:17
  • What I personally found useful when learning this is the literal breakdown of the various parts that go into a "Qu'est-ce" structure. Your otherwise excellent answer might be improved further by its inclusion.
    – Cronax
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 8:24

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