Lesson 1.8: Questions

It’s finally time to learn how to form French questions! Right before we do, here are some important question words that we’ll use throughout the lesson:

1. Qui (who)
2. Que (neutral/formal) / quoi (formal) (what: used like a noun)
3. Quel (what: used like an adjective)
4. Quand (when)
5. Où (where)
6. Pourquoi (why)
7. Comment (how)
8. Combien (how much; how many)

There are a lot of different ways to form questions in French, but for the most part, they can be boiled down to three different formats: casual form, est-ce que form, and inverted form.

Casual form

This is the most informal question format. To form a casual yes-or-no question, simply attach a question mark to a statement.

Form other types of casual questions by inserting a question word where the answer would be.

Only use the casual form in the most informal of situations.

Est-ce que form

Est-ce que literally means “is it that,” and it’s used in the most standard question format. Add it to the beginning of a statement to form a yes-or-no question.

To form other kinds of question in est-ce que form, follow the formula: [question word] + est-ce que + [statement].

That second example used an apostrophe to combine que (what) with est-ce que, following the convention to eliminate vowels. Qu’est-ce que is a very common phrase in French: remember that it indicates a question that involves “what.”

Est-ce que form is appropriate in all situations, both formal and informal.

Inverted form

This is the most formal question format, and it’s also the one that looks most like English questions. To ask an inverted yes-or-no question, swap the subject and verb with each other and connect them with a hyphen (-).

And add a question word to the front to form other types of questions:

When you use inverted form, there’s yet another rule that helps avoid bordering vowel sounds. If the verb ends in a vowel and the subject starts with a vowel sound, insert -t- between them.

Also, you’re not allowed to swap a proper noun and a verb when using inverted form. Instead, insert a pronoun after the proper noun and swap the pronoun with the verb.

Miscellaneous question formats

Those three formats—casual, est-ce que, and inverted forms—will work fine in most situations. You’ll be well prepared for most situations just knowing those three, but there are a few cases where none of them work quite right, so other formats can also be constructed. Some of the more common ones are:

• “Who” as the subject: put qui where the answer would be. This looks like casual form, but it’s considered formality-neutral.
Example: Qui est le nouveau professeur ? (Who is the new teacher?)
• “What” as the subject: put qu’est-ce qui (what is it that) or c’est quoi qui (it’s what that) at the beginning
Examples: Qu’est-ce qui a fait cette bruit ?! (What made that noise?!) Examples: C’est quoi qui te perturbe ? (What’s bothering you?)
• Asking what something is (informal): use c’est quoi (this is what) + [what you’re asking about]
Examples: C’est quoi ce livre ? (What’s that book?) Examples: C’est quoi ça ? (What’s that?)
• “Who”/“whom” or “what” in a prepositional phrase: put qui, que or quoi where the answer would be. For informal speech, leave the prepositional phrase where it would normally be; for neutral/formal speech, move it to the beginning of the question and apply either est-ce que form or inverted form.
Example: Tu achètes ce gâteau pour qui ? (Who are you buying that cake for?, informal) Example: Pour qui est-ce que vous achetez ce gâteau ? (For whom are you buying that cake?, neutral/formal) Example: Pour qui achetez-vous ce gâteau ? (For whom are you buying that cake?, neutral/formal)

As you can see, questions are a very rich (a.k.a. complicated) part of the French language. Don’t get discouraged, though: you can usually stick to the three main formats, and as you practice on the AI page and gain outside exposure to French, they’ll come naturally to you sooner than you think.