How to Form Interrogative Sentences in French

There are three ways to ask questions in French: informal (between friends and family), common (in most oral situations) and formal (in writing or in formal situations). Let’s now see how to ask questions depending on the situation.

Objectives:

• Construction of interrogative sentences orally and in writing.
• The special case of the third person singular.
• Practical exercises

1. Intonation

The simplest way to ask a question is to raise your voice at the end of the sentence. This change in intonation is very common in oral communication in a familiar context when asking questions.

• Tu veux du pain ? – Do you want some bread?
• Elle est avec toi ? – Is she with you?
• Vincent aime la natation ? – Vincent likes swimming?       

2. Using “Est-ce que”

In everyday situations, we use the interrogative form “est-ce que”. This mainly involves adding “est-ce que” at the beginning of the sentence to make the sentence a little more polite.

• Est-ce que tu veux du pain ? – Do you want some bread?
• Est-ce qu’elle est avec toi ? – Is she with you?
• Est-ce que Vincent aime la natation ? – Vincent likes swimming?      

Note that the elision must be made when the following word begins with a vowel.

• Est-ce qu’elle est avec toi ? – Is she with you?
• Est-ce qu’il veut du pain ? – Does he want bread?
• Est-ce qu’ils aiment le chocolat ? – Do they like chocolate?
• Est-ce qu’elles prennent le bus ? – Do they take the bus?

3. Inversion

In writing or in a formal context, we prefer to use subject inversion. This involves reversing the place of the subject and the verb in the sentence to form the interrogative form. Let’s first look at examples with a subject pronoun:

Examples : 

• Venez-vous lundi prochain ? – Are you coming next Monday?
• Travaillez-vous aujourd’hui ? – Are you working today?
• Écoutent-elles la radio ? – Are they listening to the radio?
• Sont-ils à l’université ? – Are they at university?
• Faites-vous la cuisine ? – Are you cooking?
• Allons-nous à la montagne samedi prochain ? – Are we going to the mountains next Saturday?

We add a euphonious -t- to the third person when the verb ends neither in -t nor in -d.

• Aime-t-il le chocolat ? – Does he like chocolate?
• Écoute-t-elle de la musique le soir ? – Does she listen to music in the evening?

When the subject is a noun, repeat it with a corresponding subject pronoun.

• Vincent joue-t-il au tennis ? – Does Vincent play tennis?
• Marie aime-t-elle les voyages ? – Does Marie like traveling?
• Vos parents font-ils du sport ? – Do your parents do sports?
• Tes soeurs habitent-elles avec vous ? – Do your sisters live with you?

Explanation:  In inversion, the subject pronoun is always used. If the subject is a proper noun or a noun phrase, it’s repeated before the verb, followed by the appropriate subject pronoun and the inverted verb.

🍀 Practice 🍀

Exercice 1 : Transformez les questions suivantes en utilisant “est-ce que”

1. Tu aimes le cinéma ? – Do you like cinema?
2. Ils habitent à Paris ? – Do they live in Paris?
3. Vous faites du sport ? – Do you play sports?
4. Il aime étudier ? – He likes studying?
5. Tu étudies le français ? – Do you study French?

Exercice 2 : Transformez les questions en faisant l’inversion du verbe et du sujet.

1. Vous habitez à Paris ? – Do you live in Paris?
2. Ils sont français ? – Are they French?
3. Elles écoutent de la musique ? – Do they listen to music?
4. Nous avons froid ? – We are cold?
5. Elle aime étudier ? – Does she like to study?

# Interrogative Sentences in French