Measurements of the associated production of a W boson and a charm (c) quark in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8TeV are reported. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 19.7fb-1 collected by the CMS detector at the LHC. The W bosons are identified through their leptonic decays to an electron or a muon, and a neutrino. Charm quark jets are selected using distinctive signatures of charm hadron decays. The product of the cross section and branching fraction σ(pp → W + c + X) B(W → ℓν) , where ℓ= e or μ , and the cross section ratio σ(pp → W ++ c ¯ + X) / σ(pp → W -+ c + X) are measured in a fiducial volume and differentially as functions of the pseudorapidity and of the transverse momentum of the lepton from the W boson decay. The results are compared with theoretical predictions. The impact of these measurements on the determination of the strange quark distribution is assessed.