Question

What are the 3 ways to ask questions in French?

Answer 1

Hi,

-Où vas-tu ? » (mot interrogatif + verbe + sujet)

-« Où est ce que tu vas ? » (mot interrogatif + ‘est ce que’ + sujet + verbe)

« Où tu vas ? » (mot interrogatif + sujet + verbe)

Comment est ce qu’il arrive ?

Comment arrive-t-il ?

Comment il arrive ?

c) Comment tu t’habilles ?

Comment est ce que tu t’habilles ?

Comment t’habilles-tu ?

Answer 2

1. Rising Intonation
Using intonation is probably the easiest way to ask a question in French. The voice simply rises at the end of a sentence, turning it into a question. Consider the following in English:



You have children.

You have children?

A simple change in your voice turns a statement into a question.



Vous avez des enfants? (You have children?)

Tu aimes ton travail? (You like your work?)

Tu as déjà voyagé? (You’ve travelled?)

2. Est-ce Que


Le French structure “est-ce que” is equivalent to “is it that” in English. So, a question like “Est-ce que tu as un chien?” would translate literally to: “Is it that you have a dog?”.



Yes, it might sound a bit strange when you’re thinking in English. But, French people don’t think in English, of course; they think in French! Est-ce que is an extremely common structure for yes-no questions, and you can expect to hear it often in conversation.



Est-ce que vous avez des enfants? (Do you have children?)

Est-ce que tu aimes ton travail? (Do you like your work?)

Est-ce que tu as déjà voyagé? (Have you ever travelled?)

3. Inversion


Inversion is probably the trickiest of the three structures for English-speakers, but with a little bit of practice, it will soon be second nature.



An inversion is basically moving the personal pronoun after the verb and connecting the two with a hyphen.



Personal pronoun? I have no idea what she’s talking about...



For those of you who – like me – never actually learned English grammar, a personal pronoun is simply one of: I, you, he, she, we, they.



So in this case, a statement like “Tu aimes danser” (you like to dance) could be turned into a question by placing tu after the verb and adding a hyphen:



Aimes-tu danser? (Do you like to dance?)



Let’s try that with our original three questions:

Avez-vous des enfants? (Do you have children?)

Aimes-tu ton travail? (Do you like your work?)

As-tu déjà voyagé? (Have you ever travelled?)