| Les questions | Questions |
Typically, yes/no questions are formed by ending the sentence with rising intonation.
| Tu parles français ? | Do you speak French? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tu vois la baleine ? | Do you see the whale? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tu es sûr ? | You are sure? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ça va ? | How's it going? (It goes?) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
As we've already seen with tu and vous, French has different levels of formality. These different levels of formality are also expressed when asking questions. Inverting the subject and verb is formal.
| Parlez-vous français ? | Do you speak French? | |
| Êtes-vous prête ? |
Are you ready (f.)? |
When a verb ends in a vowel and is followed by il, elle, or on, a 't' is inserted between the verb and the noun.
| Mange-t-il de la viande ? | Does he eat meat? |
Usually when je is the subject, questions are not formed through inversion except with a few short monosyllabic verbs (aller, avoir, devoir, dire, être and pouvoir)
| Puis-je parler à Hélène, s'il vous plaît ? | May I speak with Helene please? | |
| Suis-je fou ? | Am I crazy? |
Instead, when je is the subject, questions are typically formed by 'fronting' with est-ce que.
| Est-ce que je suis fou ? | Am I crazy ? |
| Maman, est-ce que je peux aller jouer avec Catherine ? Mama, can I go play with Catherine? |
|
| Est-ce que je peux vous tutoyer ? Can I address you with tu (as opposed to vous)? |
Fronting a question with est-ce que, is also very common when the subject isn't je.
| Est-ce que Marie va nous accompagner ? | Is Marie going to accompany us? | |
| Est-ce que Franck est de Marseilles ? | Is Frank from Marseilles? |
If a question is asked with a negated sentence, you should contradict the assumption with si.
Tu ne manges pas ?
|
You aren't going to eat?
|