When we speak to each others we ask questions all the time ! But how do we form a question in French ? In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask a yes/no question (for questions with interrogatives words click here) !
There are four ways of forming an interrogative sentence in French :
1- Questions with rising intonation
In this type of question, the voice rises at the end of the sentence to create a “vocal question mark”, the subject-verb order stays the same. This is the easiest way to make a question !
Examples :
Tu es français ? Are you French ?
Vous êtes mariés ? Are you married ?
Vous parlez anglais ? Do you speak English ?
2- Questions with a change in word order (inversion)
In this type of question the subject-verb order changes.
Examples :
Es-tu français ? Are you French ?
Êtes-vous mariés ? Are you married ?
Parlez-vous anglais ? Do you speak English ?
Note that an hyphen always connects the subject pronoun to the verb.
This works only with a subject pronoun (je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles) so for instance you can’t say “Est John américain” (is John American ?) you have to say “John est-il américain” or just “Est-il américain ?”.
More examples :
Marie est-elle arrivée ? Did Marie arrive ? but you can’t say “Est Marie arrivée ?”
Vos amis sont-ils canadiens ? Are your friends Canadian ? but you can’t say “Sont vos amis canadiens ?”
Les filles sont-elles au travail ? Are the girls at work ? but you can’t say “Sont les filles au travail ?”
Also, in the inverted questions when a third person singular verb form ends in a vowel you have to add -t- between the verb and the pronoun so it sounds better :
A-t-il un chien ? Does he has a dog ?
A-t-on des devoirs ? Do we have homework ?
Regarde-t-elle la télé ? Is she watching tv ?
3- Questions ending with n’est-ce pas
(To hear the pronunciation of n’est-ce pas click here )
In this type of question, “n’est-ce pas ?” is added to the end of a sentence without changing the subject-verb order. In this type of question the speaker usually expects agreement or confirmation :
Tu es brésilien n’est-ce pas ? You are Brazilian aren’t you ?
C’est ta voiture n’est-ce pas ? That’s your car isn’t it ?
En été on aura des vacances n’est-ce pas ? We’ll have vacation in the summer won’t we ?
Julie est sympa n’est-ce pas ? Julie is nice isn’t she ?
4- Questions starting with est-ce que
(To hear the pronunciation of est-ce que click here)
In this type of question the statement is preceded by est-ce que, the subject-verb order remains unchanged :
Est-ce que tu es français ? Are you French ?
Est-ce que tu parles chinois ? Do you speak Chinese ?
Est-ce que nous déjeunons ensemble demain ? Do we have lunch together tomorrow ?
Est-ce que je suis en retard ? Am I late ?
Before a vowel est-ce que becomes est-ce qu’ :
Est-ce qu’il est là ? Is he here ?
Est-ce qu’elle est française ? Is she French ?
Est-ce qu’on a des devoirs aujourd’hui ? Do we have homework today ?
These four types of questions are interchangeable ! However the inverted question and n’est-ce pas usually sound more formal and are often used in written language !
Now you know the four ways for asking a yes/no question, learn more and find out about the interrogative words in French by clicking here !