Qui est-ce qui vous parle?

Question

I would translate this as 'who are you speaking to? but I know the correct translation is 'who is speaking to you?' and I don't understand why so I wonder if you could explain please?

Accepted Answer

Hi Janet, 
Just to add to what has already been said, the lesson tells you that for who? you can say:

qui ?
or
qui est-ce qui ?

although the second one is more colloquial and for spoken French 
so -
qui vous parle ? = qui est-ce qui vous parle ? = who is speaking to you? 
To say - who are you speaking to?
you would say

à qui parlez-vous ?
or 
à qui est-ce que vous parlez ? = Lit - to whom are you speaking

Hope this helps

Answer

Hi Janet,If you were correct in your initial translation then the verb conjugation would be wrong.it would need to concur with "vous" ie "parlez"  --  but the conjugation is "parle" which relates to third-person singular.Immediately that should alert you to "qui" being the subject and "vous" the indirect object. The verb form is "parler à".I don't mean to be too critical of your analysis, just trying to guide you to the logic of the sentence structure.What is the subject? what is the object? what is the verb form being implied/employed?These are the questions to ask yourself going forward.Hope this helps.Bonne continuation.Jim

Answer

À qui est-ce que vous parlez? -- To whom are you talking?Qui est-ce qui vous parle? -- Who is that who speaks to you?In the first sentence, vous is the subject and à qui is the indirect object. And as Jim already pointed out, the verb needs to match the subject: vous parlez.In the second sentence, qui is the subject and vous is the indirect object being talked to. Hence, parler needs to be in 3rd person singular: qui parle.