Questions

Tips and notes

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Inversions
The most formal way of asking a question is to use an inversion, where the verb
appears before its pronoun and the two are connected by a hyphen.

 Boit-il ? — Does he drink? / Is he drinking? / He drinks?

 Boivent-ils du lait ? — Do they drink milk? / Are they drinking milk? / They
drink milk?

However, if the subject of the sentence is a noun, then the noun should appear
before the verb, although a pronoun still needs to appear afterwards.

 Le lait est-il froid ? — Is the milk cold?

 Les chats sont-ils noirs ? — Are the cats black?

If the verb ends in a vowel, the letter T must be inserted after the verb for
euphony. This T is chaîned onto the pronoun and is meaningless.

 A-t-il un chien ? — Does he have a dog?

 Parle-t-elle anglais ? — Does she speak English?

Inverted forms still obey other grammar rules, like those for il est vs. c'est.
However, the pronoun in an inversion cannot elide.

 Est-ce un problème ? — Is it a problem?

 Est-elle médecin ? — Is she a doctor?
 Puis-je aider les enfants ? — Can I help the children?

Est-ce Que
Est-ce que (pronounced like "essk") can be added in front of a statement to turn
it into a question. Remember that queelides in front of vowel sounds.
 Est-ce qu'il boit ? — Does he drink? / Is he drinking?
 Est-ce que c'est un problème ? — Is it a problem?
 Est-ce qu'il a un chien ? — Does he have a dog?

Intonation
In informal speech, one of the most common ways to ask a question is simply to
raise your intonation at the end of a statement, like you'd do in English.

 Il boit ? — Is he drinking?
 Il pleut ? — Is it raining?

Interrogatives
An interrogative word introduces a question. French has interrogative
adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs.

Interrogative Adjectives
French has one interrogative adjective with four forms. It translates to "which"
or "what" depending on the context.

Gender Singular Plural

Masculine quel quels

Feminine quelle quelles

An interrogative adjective cannot stand alone. It must modify (and agree with) a
noun, and that noun must either be adjacent to it or separated by a form of être.

 Quelle fille ? — Which girl?

 Quel est le problème ? — What is the problem?

Quel is also an exclamatory adjective in statements.

 Quelle chance ! — What luck!

 Quel grand garçon il est ! — What a tall boy he is!

Interrogative Pronouns
Unlike an adjective, an interrogative pronoun can stand alone. For instance,
the interrogative pronoun lequel can replace quel + noun. Note that it agrees with
the noun it replaces.

Quel Form Lequel Form

Quel cheval ? — Which horse? Lequel ? — Which one?

Quels hommes mangent ?— Lesquels mangent ? — Which

Which men eat? ones eat?

Quelle robe est rose ? — Which Laquelle est rose ? — Which

dress is pink? one is pink?

Quelles lettres ? — Which Lesquelles ? — Which ones?

letters?

The most common interrogative pronouns are qui (for people) and que (for
everything else). However, the construction changes based on a number of
factors. Qui is the only pronoun that can start a question by itself, but
both qui and que can be used with inversion.

 Qui parle ? — Who is speaking?

 Qui es-tu ? — Who are you?
 Que fait-il ? — What is he making?

Both can also use est-ce, but est-ce que (which you learned above) can only be
used in a question with être or when the pronoun is the object ("what" or
"whom"). When it's the subject, est-ce qui must be used.
 Qui est-ce qui parle ? — Who's speaking? (subj.)
 Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? — What is going on? (subj.)
 Qui est-ce que tu appelles ? — Whom are you calling? (obj.)
 Qu'est-ce que c'est ? — What is it? (question with être)

After prepositions and at the end of questions, que becomes quoi.

 Le problème est quoi ? — What's the problem?

 À quoi pensez-vous ? — What are you thinking about?

Qui and que can be very confusing because they can also be relative
pronouns. Que can also be a subordinating conjunction. You will learn these
uses later.

Interrogative Adverbs
A number of interrogative adverbs can be used to request information

 Pourquoi ("why"): Pourquoi manges-tu du pain ? — Why are you eating

bread?
 Comment ("how"): Comment allez-vous ? — How are you?
 Quand ("when"): Quand est-ce que tu vas manger ? — When are you going to
eat?
 Combien ("how many/much"): Combien d'eau ? — How much water?
 Où ("where"): Où suis-je ? — Where am I?

Note that when these adverbs are used with intonation-based questions, they
can appear at the beginning or the end of the sentence (except pourquoi).

 Tu vas comment ? — How are you?

 Vous êtes d'où ? — Where are you from?