In keeping with the Yabla French tradition of presenting three words that look or sound the same but mean different things (see our lessons on des, dés, and dès and si, si, and si), here are three more: quand, quant, and qu’en.

Of the three words, quand is the one you might be the most familiar with. It means “when,” both as an interrogative adverb (e.g. When are you going?) and as a conjunction (e.g. I’m going when I get off work). 

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In their discussion on multiculturalism, the R&B sister duo Les Nubians use quand as an adverb to speculate on a sort of global passport that would allow us all to become “universal citizens”:  

D'ailleurs quand est-ce qu'on invente le passeport?

By the way, when will they invent the passport?

Caption 26, Les Nubians - Le multiculturalisme

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As an interrogative adverb, quand can sometimes be replaced with à quel moment... or à quelle heure... (at what time…?). 

While Les Nubians are looking to the future, Axel reflects on the past in his tour of Paris’s Luxembourg Gardens, using quand as a conjunction: 

Je me rappelle quand j'étais petit, quand j'étais avec mes copains.

I remember when I was little, when I was with my friends.

Caption 58, Mon Lieu Préféré - Jardin du Luxembourg

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The other adverbial form of “when” is lorsque:

Lorsque je vous vois, je tressaille

When I see you, I quiver

Caption 19, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire

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Quand is also used fairly often in the expression quand même, which means “still,” “even though,” or “all the same”: 

Pas mal de nuages mais quand même des éclaircies.

Quite a few clouds but still some sunny spells.

Caption 9, Alsace 20 - Météo des Maquilleurs

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The words quand and quant are only off by one letter, so make sure not to confuse them in writing. Quant is always followed by à or one of its variants (à la, au, aux) and means “as for” or “regarding”:

Quant à l'adresse du destinataire, il s'agit du Père Noël.

As for the recipient's address, it's Santa Claus.

Caption 24, Télé Miroir - Adresse postale du Père Noël

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An expression to replace quant à is en ce qui concerne (concerning): En ce qui concerne l'adresse du destinataire, il s'agit du Père Noël.

Less confusable in writing is qu’en, which nevertheless sounds the same as quand and quant. Qu’en is a contraction of the relative pronoun que and the indefinite pronoun en and is used in phrases like:

Qu’en penses-tu?

What do you think about that? 

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As you may know, en replaces phrases beginning with de (or de la, du, des), so the above sentence could also be written as: Que penses-tu de cela? 

So what do you think about these three homonyms? (Quant à vous, qu'en pensez-vous?) We hope this lesson helped clear up any confusion you may have had!