The second 'que' is used mostly informally. Yes it would be wrong, the correct sentence is: O que ele disse? Taking the 'é' out. Both 'O que é que ele disse?' and 'O que ele disse' have the same meaning.

It's because "O que" means "what" and the other "que" means the relative pronouns "that". For example, "O que é QUE ele disse?" can be answer "Ele disse QUE ama você". We can say "O que ele disse?" or "O que que ele disse?", hahaha. It's the same word, but it have different meaning. In English, I saw it in "I had had a dog when I was a child". I remember that I thought "Why two 'had'?". Hahaha. I hope that I have helped you! .

Hi everyone, The book on Portuguese that i am using actually says that if we are to remove the é que in the question, then the subject should be placed after the verb, like this... 'O que é que ele disse?' becomes 'O que disse ele?' Is this also correct? Eddie

I believe this happens due to French influence over the Portuguese language in Brazil, and Portugal (about the century XIX and begin of the XX one too, I guess). In French they use two "que" in a question also. We have a lot of words that came from French. This is just what I think. Didn't made any reserch about this. :)

The 2nd "que" is not necessary. It's used in informal situations. Formally it would be "O que ele disse?" and "O que você fez ontem?" In my opnion "Tu fizeste" is not too much usefull. It's not wrong, ok? But, we portuguese native speakers don't use sentences like this on our day-by-day. About "O que é ele disse"... This one would be wrong, because there is that "é", and you know what? When you use this "é" in these situations you'll need to use the other "que". Hahah If it got you confused, just talk with me. Hahah I'll try to help ya. You can practice with me anytime you want. Sorry if I wrote something wrong. Just lemme know about it. hahah Xoxoxo