ce que in front of a reflexive pronoun?

Question

I am a bit confused with the following sentence. The correct thing is to put ce que but instead, in the lesson, we know that ce qui should be used when the next word is a verb or an object or a reflexive pronoun?? Is it because, the "tu" is in front of the m' that doesn't count? Because I assumed that since there is a reflexive verb I should put ce qui.

Je me demande ce que tu m'as acheté pour Noël.

Thanks,

Anna

Accepted Answer

Hi Anna, 
Je me demande ce que tu m'as acheté pour Noël = I am wondering what you bought me for Christmas
(Ce que tu as acheté à moi)
Je me demande ce qui se passe = I am wondering what is happening
Je me demande ce qui t'a fait peur =  I am wondering what frightened you (ce qui a fait peur à toi) 
Je me demande ce que Marie a fait hier = I am wondering what Marie did yesterday
Je me demande ce que le monsieur va faire = I am wondering what the gentleman is going to do 
I hope these different examples will help you to see the difference between 'ce qui' and 'ce que'.
As a rule of thumb -
Qui/ce qui will be followed by a verb or an object pronoun/ reflexive pronoun but never by a subject pronoun like je-tu-il, etc.)
Que/ce que will be followed by a subject pronoun or a noun.
Hope this helps

Answer

The rule is that ce qui functions as a subject and ce que as an object in a sentence. The question is now: how do you recognize which one it should be? Usually, if the next word is a verb, whatever precedes it is the subject. So use ce qui before the verb. If there is already a subject in the sentence (as, e.g., tu), then you can't have another subject and you need ce que instead.Je me demande ce que tu m'as acheté pour Noel. -- I ask myself what you bought me for Christmas.Je me demande is the main clause. We're not concerned with that here....ce que tu m'as acheté is the subordinate clause. Tu is the subject, therefore the relative pronoun needs to be ce que.