Qual v. Que or O que I am a beginner at Brazilian Portuguese. Is there a trick to figuring out when to use qual v. que (or o que). I'm not sure if the book I have does a good job explaining it .

Question

Qual v. Que or O que
I am a beginner at Brazilian Portuguese. Is there a trick to figuring out when to use qual v. que (or o que). I'm not sure if the book I have does a good job explaining it   >.<

Answer

It's a trick actually! Basically o quê is similar to "what", que is similar to "that" (connecting sentences) and qual is similar to "which" in English (but things can be messed up a little bit and there are exceptions, of course). 
E.g:
 "what do you do?" (o que você faz?) 
"what's going on?" (o que está acontecendo?) 
"what?" (quê?/ o quê?)
"Which one of those do you prefer?" (Qual desses você prefere?)
"You know that I told her about it!" (Você sabe que eu falei com ela sobre isso!)

Answer

Hi, Sammie!
The correct application of these pronouns is difficult even for many Brazilians. For more information on this subject please visit - http://www.soportugues.com.br/secoes/morf/morf51.php or http://www.normaculta.com.br/pronomes-relativos/ 
Have a nice day!

Answer

All are relative  pronoms. 
QUAL can used in the middle of sentences or asking certain thing. EX: Qual o seu nome? (whats your name?)/ Eu moro no Brasil o qual tem carnaval.( I live in Brazil where have carnival).
QUE always in  middle of sentences. Ex: Acredito que hoje tem sol. ( I believe today have sun)/ A viagem que eu fiz foi boa. (The trip I did was good).
O QUE   always asking whats to be anything. EX:  O que é isto? ( Whats is this?) / O que aconteceu? (Whats happened?)

Understand? xx

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