2.16: Structure - Formation des questions

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Objectif

In this section, you will learn how to form questions

Media Alternative

Listen to the audio clips that follow on this page to hear the French pronunciation of vocabulary and examples presented.

On étudie !

There are four ways to form "yes" or "no" questions: , (a) using est-ce que, (b) inversion, (c) change in intonation and (d) using n'est-ce pas.

(a) You can also simply add Est-ce que... to the beginning of any statement and it becomes a question:

Tu habites à Paris. (You live in Paris.) —> Est-ce que tu habites à Paris ? (Do you live in Paris?)

Tu aimes le cours d'espagnol. (You like Spanish class.) —> Est-ce que tu aimes le cours d'espagnol ? (Do you like Spanish class?)

Il y a des Français dans la classe. (There are French people in the class.) —> Est-ce qu'il y a des Français dans la classe ? (Are there French people in the class?)

Notice that Est-ce que is contracted to Est-ce qu' when followed by a vowel.

(b) Inversion. Like English, French uses inversion to form a question in which the verb comes before the subject (e.g., Is he there?). In writing, you must connect the verbe and subject with a hyphen (-), e.g., voulez-vous un café ?

Except for certain formulaic expressions, inversion is used more in writing than in speech in French.

Questions avec inversion
Français	Anglais
Comment allez-vous ? Comment vas-tu ?	How are you?
Comment s'appelle-t-il ?	What is his name?
Est-ce un stylo ?	Is that a pen?
Êtes-vous camerounais ?	Are you Cameroonian?
D'où viens-tu ?	Where are you from?
Qui est-ce ?	Who is it?

In the question Comment s'appelle-t-il ? above, a -t- is inserted (with hypens) to prevent two vowels from blending together. For example, without the -t-, the end of s'appelle would merge with il, and it could be difficult to understand. This also happens when the expression il y a is inverted for questions:

Y a-t-il des Français dans la classe ?

Quel âge a-t-il ?

A-t-il un stylo ?

Or when the conjugated verb ends with a vowel:

Aime-t-elle le film ?

Note

The inversion aiment-ils already has a t to pronounce (i.e., a liaison)

If the subject is a noun, and not a pronoun, then in the case of the third person singular and plural, we first place the noun at the beginning of the question then follow the steps above to invert the verb and a subject pronoun.

Les sciences sont-elles difficiles ?

Marie, aime-t-elle les maths ?

Inversion is important to understand, but when in doubt, keep it simple and use the other three formations above. You should definitely practice adding est-ce que to a statement because it is very common (and different from English).

(c) Change in Intonation. In everyday conversation, the most common way to ask a question is to simply use a rising intonation. We have seen this already with Ça va ? where the statement Ça va is said with a questioning intonation. You basically take any statement and make it a question like this:

Tu habites à Paris ? (You live in Paris?)

Tu aimes le cours d'espagnol ? (You like Spanish class?)

Il y a des Français dans la classe ? (There are French people in the class?)

(d) With "..., n'est-ce pas ?". You can also add n'est-ce pas ? to a sentence when you are asking for confirmation of the statement.

— Mboup et Kassé sont sénégalais, n'est-ce pas ? (Mboup and Kassé are Senegalese, aren't they?)

— Oui, ils sont sénégalais. (Yes, they're Senegalese.)

You could also use non in the same way:

— Tu l'aimes bien, non ? (You like it, no? right? don't you?)

Here is a summary of the four ways to form "yes" or "no" questions:

Types de questions
Structures	Exemples
Est-ce que	Est-ce que tu bois du café ? Est-ce qu’elle habite à Paris ?
Inversion	Bois-tu du café ? Habite-t-elle à Paris ? Les étudiants, vont-ils au café ?
Intonation	Tu bois du café ? Vous habitez à Paris ?
..., n’est-ce pas ?	Tu bois du café, n’est-ce pas ? Elle habite à Paris, n’est-ce pas ?

Ressources supplémentaires

Watch this video tutorial: asking questions with est-ce que.

Watch this video tutorial: asking questions with inversions.

Watch this video tutorial: asking questions with n'est-ce pas.

Find out more about question tags in French and when to use n’est-ce pas.