Les Questions
We can ask two kinds of questions in French.
We can ask “yes / no” questions which are questions that will only get
an answer of “yes” or “no”.
In order to ask these questions in French, we can do one of four
things.
We can use what we refer to as voice inflection to make our voice rise at
the end of the question but use the same structure as in a sentence.
Paul est étudiant?
We can also add “n’est-ce pas” to the end of the statement to indicate that
we are asking a question.
Paul est étudiant, n’est-ce pas?
And lastly, we can “invert” the subject and verb to make a question.
Paul, est-il étudiant?
We can also add “est-ce que” to a statement to get a question that gets a
yes / no answer.
Est-ce que Paul est étudiant?
Those are the four basic ways we can ask questions that will have a yes /
no answer.
Another kind of question is called an “information” question. These are
questions that we ask needing specific information – such as when?
Where? Why? How much? How? Who?
These questions are formed in a couple of different ways. One way is by
adding a question word to an inverted (switch order of subject-verb)
statement:
Comment t’appelles-tu?
Comment vous appelez-vous?
Comment allez-vous?
Comment sont-ils?
These are a few examples using some questions you have seen before.
The other way we can use these is using the question word, then est-ce
que, then the statement.
Comment est-ce tu t’appelles?
Comment est-ce que vous vous appelez?
Comment est-ce que vous allez?
Comment est-ce qu’ils sont?
You are going to practice these with some activities in the “Pratiquons”
section, but first let’s look at a chart of the question words – some of which
you already know.
French Question Word
Who?
Que, quoi?
Quand?
Où?
Pourquoi?
Combien?
A quelle heure?
Comment?
English Equivalent
Qui?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How much
At what time?
How?
If you find question formation difficult or tricky, be sure that you go through
the practices. These are concepts that must be memorized and the one
thing that will help you memorize them is repetition! So practice, practice,
practice!