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You are here: Home / French Grammar 109 – Interrogative Form

French Grammar 109 – Interrogative Form

In French, there are 3 ways of putting a sentence in the interrogative form.


Using intonation

The simplest way to ask a question simply involves raising one’s voice at the end of the affirmative sentence. This is mostly used in the spoken language.

For example:
Vous venez ce soir?  – Are you coming tonight?
Il est arrivé hier soir? – He arrived last night ?

Using ‘est-ce-que’

The second easiest way to form a question in French is to simply add ‘est-ce que’ in front of the affirmative sentence.

For example:
Est-ce que tu veux sortir, demain? – Do you want to go out, tomorrow?
Est-ce que vous partez, ce weekend? – Are you going away, this weekend?

Note that when the ‘e’ of ‘que’ is directly followed by another vowel an apostrophe replaces the ‘e’ of ‘que’.

For example:
Est-ce-qu’Anne quitte son travail bientôt? – Does Anne leave work soon?
Est-ce qu’elle va venir avec nous? – Is she going to come with us?

Inverting personal pronoun and verb

As the modal verb do and all its forms (‘do’, ‘does’ and ‘did’) do not exist in French, the actual interrogative form consists in inversing the personal pronoun (je / tu / il / elle / nous / vous / ils / elles) with the verb.

For example:
Veux-tu sortir, demain? – Do you want to go out tomorrow?
Partez-vous ce weekend? – Are you going away this weekend?
Va-t-elle venir avec nous? – Is she going to come with us?
A-t-il apporté quelque chose? – Did he bring something?

Note in the last examples that when 2 vowels follow each other a ‘-t-’ with hyphens is added to ease pronunciation:
Va -t- elle ?
A -t- il ?

The same model is followed when using interrogative words like: Where? When? How? What?

For example:
Où habites-tu? – Where do you live?
Quand finit-il ses devoirs? – When does he finish his homework?
Comment va-t-elle? – How is she?
Que veux-tu à manger? – What do you want to eat?

The inverting system is also applied in the use of ‘il y a’ (there is or there are).

For example:
Y a-t-il quelque chose à boire ? – Is there something to drink?
Qu’y a-t-il de l’autre côté? – What is there on the other side?

EXERCISE: 109 Interrogative Form | NEXT: 110 Negative form

FRENCH BEGINNERS’ COURSE

Grammar
101 Articles
102 Pronouns
103 Nouns and Adjectives
104 Demonstrative Adjectives
105 Possessive Adjectives
106 Verbs
107 Adverbs
108 Prepositions
109 Interrogative Form
110 Negative Form


Exercises
101 Articles
102 Pronouns
103 Nouns and Adjectives
104 Demonstrative Adjectives
105 Possessive Adjectives
106 Verbs
107 Adverbs
108 Prepositions
109 Interrogative Form
110 Negative Form

Vocabulary lists
101 Numbers
102 Family
103 Greetings
104 Food and Drinks
105 Time
106 Rooms
107 City
108 Questions
109 Household Objects
110 Jobs

Listening practice
101 Articles
102 Pronouns
103 Nouns and Adjectives
104 Demonstrative Adjectives
105 Possessive Adjectives
106 Present of Verbs
107 Adverbs
108 Adverbs
109 Interrogative Form
110 Negative Form

Dialogues
101 Telephone
102 Clothes shop
103 Restaurant
104 At the Doctor
105 Taxi
106 The Bistro
107 Hotel
108 Tourism Office
109 Bus Station
110 Looking for a Place

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