Learn how to make questions and question tags in French
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| Michael: How are questions made in French? |
| Aurore: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At FrenchPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Fleur Toussaint is asking his neighbour whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join, but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Dialogue |
| Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| Michael: "We are going, aren't we, darling?" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you will learn how to form questions in French. There are a few ways you can ask questions in French, and one of the most common is by using a rising intonation or making your voice go up at the end of your sentence. This is commonly done when asking yes-no questions, such as in this example: |
| Aurore: Vous aimez la France ? |
| Michael: This is literally “You like France,” but, by making your voice go up at the end, you can turn this into a question: “Do you like France?” Here, the word order is followed, where the subject comes before the verb. Here’s a similar example: |
| Aurore: On part tout de suite ? |
| Michael: This is literally “We’re leaving right away,” and is understood as a declarative statement unless you raise your voice toward the end, in which case, you will have the question, “Are we leaving right away?” |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: This time, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Fleur Toussaint says "Are you coming to our party?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Aurore as Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Michael: Here, we can observe another common way to form questions in French, and that is with the use of the expression, |
| Aurore: est-ce que. |
| Michael: This is the inversion of |
| Aurore: c'est que |
| Michael: and literally means “it is that.” It’s like the word “do” in English, only that it never changes its form regardless of the nature of the question. Also, it’s always at the beginning of the sentence, before the subject and the verb. In fact, when forming a question using this expression, all you need to do is form your sentence regularly and add it before the subject. For instance, to turn this into a question: |
| Aurore: Tu connais Marie |
| Michael: “You know Marie,” you only add the said expression before the subject “you” and add a question mark at the end. |
| Aurore: Est-ce que tu connais Marie ? |
| Michael: “Do you know Marie?” |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee says "We are going, aren't we, darling?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Aurore as Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| Michael: Just like other languages, French makes use of question tags to form questions. However, unlike in English where you repeat the verb in the main sentence to form the tag question, in French, you use an assortment of words, such as the one in this line: |
| Aurore: n'est-ce pas. |
| Michael: This literally means “is it not,” although it can be used to mean “right?” or “isn’t that so?” You can think of it as an all-purpose question tag. Here’s an example: |
| Aurore: C’est joli, n’est-ce pas ? |
| Michael: This means, “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Here’s another one: |
| Aurore: Tu dois travailler ce matin, n’est-ce pas ? |
| Michael: “You have to work this morning, don’t you?” Another common question tag is |
| Aurore: hein. |
| Michael: If the previous question tag we’ve covered is mostly used in formal conversations, this one is more of an informal way to request the listener to acknowledge or confirm what you’ve just said. One example would be, |
| Aurore: Elle est géniale, hein ? |
| Michael: “She’s great, right?” |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned how questions are made in French and also about using question tags. Now, let’s look at some examples. Our first example is: |
| Aurore: Tes parents sont en vacances ? |
| Michael: “Are your parents on vacation?” Here, we used intonation at the end of the sentence to form the question. The next example is: |
| Aurore: Est-ce que ta sœur part vraiment ? |
| Michael: “Is your sister really leaving?” As we have learned, another way to form a question in French is to add an expression at the beginning of the sentence. This expression is: |
| Aurore: est-ce que. |
| Michael: Here’s our third example: |
| Aurore: Il aime le français, n’est-ce pas ? |
| Michael: “He likes French, doesn’t he?” Finally, we’ve also learned about ending regular sentences with interrogative words or phrases to form a question in French, one of which is |
| Aurore: n'est-ce pas. |
| Michael: Here’s an other example: |
| Aurore: C’est bon, n’est-ce pas ? |
| Michael: “It’s good, isn’t it?” |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Another way you can form questions in French is by changing the order of words in a sentence. Normally, the verb comes after the subject. In this case, you place the verb before the subject. This process is referred to as “inversion.” This can be done when the subject is a pronoun, such as |
| Aurore: vous or il |
| Michael: “You” or “he.” Moreover, you will need to add a hyphen between the verb and the pronoun. Let’s try this sentence: |
| Aurore: Vous aimez la France. |
| Michael: “You like France.” Earlier, we learned that we can simply raise our voice at the end of this statement to turn it into the question, “Do you like France?” When using inversion, we will place the verb before the subject, and in the process, connect the pronoun and the verb with a hyphen: |
| Aurore: Aimez-vous la France ? |
| Michael: “Do you like France?” |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Aurore focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Fleur Toussaint says "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Aurore as Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Fleur Toussaint: Est-ce que vous venez à notre fête ? |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark Lee says "We are going, aren't we, darling?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Aurore as Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Mark Lee: Nous y allons, n'est-ce pas chérie ? |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Making requests sometimes requires that you ask questions. In French, the most common way to make requests is to begin a statement with, |
| Aurore: Je voudrais... |
| Michael: which means “I would like…” |
| Aurore: This works well in everyday transactions, such as when you’re buying something from the store. It’s also appropriate when you’re trying to gain information about something. However, when asking for a favor or when you need additional information, using the French “I would like to” might seem too demanding. It would be more polite if you form your statement into questions instead. Try this, for instance: |
| Aurore: Serait-il possible de… ? |
| Michael: “Would it be possible…?” Or this one: |
| Aurore: Pourriez-vous… ? |
| Michael: “Could you…?” And finally, this one: |
| Aurore: Est-ce que ça vous dérangerait de… ? |
| Michael: “Would you mind …?” I know you would agree if we said that beginning your requests with these expressions makes them sound more polite and nice rather than rude or demanding. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Aurore: À bientôt ! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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