Whoever, Whatever, Wherever in French
Few words have caused my students as much grief as the French equivalents of whoever, whatever, wherever, whenever, and however. English compounds the suffix -ever onto who, what, where, when and how to produce a single, consistent set of forms. French doesn't work that way. Each of these requires a different construction, and several of them require the subjunctive. This page maps the English forms onto their French equivalents and explains when to use which.
In this post
French distinguishes between two uses of whoever that English doesn't mark grammatically.
When whoever is the subject of the relative clause, use quiconque, with the verb in the indicative. Quiconque is formal and belongs primarily to written French.
Sometimes whoever doesn't perform the action itself, someone else does, and whoever is simply the unknown person that action is directed at. In that case, use qui que with the verb in the subjunctive.
A useful test: can you rephrase the sentence as "no matter who you X" rather than "no matter who Xs"? If whoever sits right before the verb and performs the action, you need quiconque. If a different subject performs the action and whoever is on the receiving end, you need qui que.
Whatever is the most complex of the group. French distinguishes between three uses that share a single English word.
When whatever is followed by a subject and verb (neuter, no specific noun), use quoi que with the subjunctive.
When whatever modifies a noun that is the subject of the clause, use quel que soit + noun, with quel agreeing in gender and number. A useful test: if be can be omitted in English (whatever your advice works without may be), use quel que soit. Note that être can never be omitted in French even when be is omitted in English.
Unlike the others, French has no quand que equivalent. The translation depends on the meaning.
The n'importe forms are built on a single logic: n'importe means "it doesn't matter", so n'importe qui means "it doesn't matter who" → anyone at all. None of these forms require the subjunctive, and they are common in everyday speech.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| n'importe qui | anyone, whoever |
| n'importe quoi | anything, whatever |
| n'importe où | anywhere, wherever |
| n'importe quand | anytime, whenever |
| n'importe lequel / laquelle | any one, whichever |
| n'importe comment | in any way at all |
Look at what immediately follows the expression.
With n'importe, nothing grammatically attached follows it, it's a self-contained phrase that just means "any X."
N'importe qui peut assister au conseil municipal. (Nothing follows n'importe qui except the rest of the main sentence.)
With the subjunctive constructions, a subject and a conjugated verb always follow immediately:
Qui que le patron choisisse... (le patron choisisse, a subject and verb, sits right after.)
So the test is simple: does a subject and verb come right after the expression? If yes, you need the subjunctive construction. If the expression stands alone, you need n'importe.
N'importe qui triche is not correct French, because n'importe qui doesn't introduce a clause. For "whoever cheats", use quiconque triche instead.
These two look almost identical but mean completely different things.
Quoiqu'il soit fatigué, il continue à travailler. (Although he is tired, he keeps working.)
Quoi qu'il fasse, elle ne sera jamais satisfaite. (Whatever he does, she will never be satisfied.)
The density of this page reflects the genuine complexity of the topic. You won't need all of these constructions equally often. « N'importe » and « chaque fois que » will serve you daily. « Quoi que » and « où que » show up regularly once you're reading or watching French news and interviews.