[스크랩] How to Ask Questions in French

 

How to Ask Questions in French.docx

 

How to Ask Questions in French

How do you ask basic questions in French? Well, French interrogative words mean the same as they do for English: who, what, when, where, why, and how. By knowing basic French interrogatives, you'll be able to express your questions, even without an extensive vocabulary.

For example, say you're at a French street market and you want find a beautiful antique clock. You can ask the vendor Combien est cette horloge antique? (How much is this antique clock?). But if you don't know enough vocabulary, you can simply point to the clock and say Combien?(Kombia)(How much?) and the seller will understand that you want to know the price.

Know how to ask questions with these interrogatives:

Qui? (kee) (Who?)

Qu’est-ce que? (kes-ku) (What?)

Quand? (kon) (When?)

Où? (oo) (Where?)

Pourquoi? (poor-kwa) (Why?)

Comment? (ko-mon) (How?)

Combien? (kom-bia) (How much? How many?)

Quelle? (kel) (Which?)

Y a-t-il? (yah-teel) (Is there? Are there?)

Vous avez (Voo zavi) (You Have )

Take a look at some different ways to put these interrogatives into some useful phrases.

• À quelle heure le restaurant ferme? (What time does the restaurant close?)
• Où habite ta fille? (Where does your [informal] daughter live?)
• Quand est la réunion? (When is the meeting?)
• Comment est-ce que je vais au bureau? (How do I get to the office?)
• Où est le distributeur automatique? (Where is the ATM?)
• Quand faut-il régler la note? (When is checkout time?)
• Es ce que vous avez des amis ? Do you have friends
• Es ce que tu as des amis ? Do you have friends
• Es ce qu’ils ont des amis ?do they have friends
• Es ce que il /elle a des amis ?does he/she has friends.
• A quelle heure nous allons partir? at what time we will go.
• A quelle heur vous allez partir?at what time you will go .

The following questions show how you can use these interrogative words in a variety of ways.

Jean Paul: Qui est cet homme? (Who is that man?)

Francois: C’est le gérant. (He’s the manager.)

Jean Paul: Qui sont ces gens? (Who are these people?)

Francois: Ce sont des étudiants. (They’re students.)

Jean Paul: Où vas-tu? (Where are you [informal] going?)

François: Je vais au musée. (I’m going to the museum.)

Jean Paul: Où sont les billets? (Where are the tickets?)

Francois: Ils sont dans le tiroir. (They’re in the drawer.)

Jean Paul: Où se trouve le Louvre? (Where is the Louvre located?)

François: Dans le premier arrondissement. (In the first district.)

Jean Paul: Quand partons-nous? (When do we leave?)

François: Nous partons demain matin. (We leave tomorrow morning.)

Jean Paul: Combien de valises avez-vous? (How many suitcases do you have?)

François: J’ai deux valises. (I have two suitcases.)

Jean Paul: Qu’est-ce que tu fais? (What are you [informal] doing?)

François: Je fais la cuisine. (I’m cooking.)

By changing the form of the word you from tu to vous and using the corresponding verb form, you change the question from informal to formal.

• Qu’est-ce que tu veux? (What do you [informal] want?)
• Qu’est-ce que vous voulez? (What do you [formal] want?)

 

 

How do I ask questions in French?

There are a number of ways of forming questions in French and the ins and outs of some of them are rather complicated. But 99 per cent of the time, you don't need the complicated forms. Here are some simple rules of thumb to get you through.

The simple case: questions in informal speech

In relaxed spoken French (i.e. probably in about 95% of usage), the following is generally all you need to remember:

• To form a yes-no question (i.e. one that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'), you just need to put est-ce que before the verb.

est-ce que tu travailles? do you work?

est-ce qu’il /elle travaille? Does he/she  work? (For he&she)

Est –ce que vous travaillez? do you work?

Oui je travaille ?Yes ,I work(singular)

Oui Nous Travaillons chez DAEWOO ?Yes We Work for Daewoo (Plural)
est-ce que tu fais ça demain? are you doing it tomorrow?
est-ce que tu as des frères et soeurs? have you got any brothers and sisters? 

De quelle Entreprise Vous avez travaillés?which Company you are working for ?
Nous travaillons chez Daewoo.We are working For Daewoo.

• You can also form a yes-no question simply by keeping the same words as in the equivalent affirmative sentence but by saying the final syllable on a rising pitch:

tu travailles? do you work?
tu fais ça demain? are you doing it tomorrow?
tu as des frères et soeurs? have you got any brothers and sisters? 

• To form a partial question (who..., when..., where... etc) you just need to put the appropriate French question word (quand, où, qui) at the end of the sentence.

tu pars quand? when are you leaving?
tu vas où? where are you going?
tu travailles avec qui? who do you work with?
tu fais quoi? what are you doing? 

Notes

It is also often possible to use est-ce que (es ku) with partial questions and that is the normal way to use pourquoi:

quand est-ce que tu pars? when are you leaving?(sigular)

quand est-ce que vous  partez? when are you leaving(plural)
où est-ce que tu vas ? where are you going?
pourquoi est-ce que tu ne viens pas? why aren't you coming?

 

The construction qu'est-ce que... (and not quoi est-ce que...) is also a very common way of asking what... questions:

qu'est-ce que tu fais? what are you doing?(singular )

Qu’es –ce que vous avez fais(plural)

When the question would begin with a preposition, it's less usual to use est-ce que. So one would tend to say tu travailles avec qui? rather than %avec qui est-ce que tu travailles?.(you are working with whom)

More complex cases: formal speech and writing

In formal speech and writing:

• Putting the question word at the end of the sentence can often sound too informal..
• The est-ce que construction can sound a bit long-winded in written French.
• A more usual way of forming a question in formal French is to use inversion.

Inversion

In formal French, it is possible and usual to form a question by inverting the order of the subject and the verb. In English, most verbs require 'do' support: do you work? In French, no extra verb is required, but to ensure life isn't too easy, there are other complications instead:

• When a third person singular pronoun and verb are inverted, an extra -t- may need to be inserted.
• If the subject is a noun phrase, there are situations where it cannot be directly inverted and a corresponding subject pronoun must be introduced.
• If the subject is je, the inverted form is often not possible at all!

Inversion with il, elle, on

These third person pronouns all begin with a vowel. When the verb is placed before one of these pronouns, a -t- sound will always occur between the verb and the pronoun. If the spelling of the verb doesn't already end in a t sound (either spelt -t or -d), then one is added explicitly:

prend-il?
finit-il?
voulait-elle?
travaille-t-il?
mange-t-elle?
couvre-t-on?

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Noun phrase subject

When the subject is a noun phrase (i.e. not a pronoun), it may, depending on the circumstances:

• Be inverted directly with the subject (I will call this the 'basic form'):

où travaille ton père?

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• Be placed before the verb with an extra pronoun insreted; the pronoun and verb are then inverted. I will call this the 'extended form':

où ton père travaille-t-il?

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The following table gives an indication of when each form is possible, with examples.

Situation	Basic form	Extended form
Yes-no question	---	Le chien a-t-il mangé aujourd'hui?
With short question word	Où travaille votre père?	Où votre père travaille-t-il?
With longer question word	Unusual	Comment Madame Thatcher est-elle devenue premier ministre?
Where inversion would put noun phrase subject and object next to each other	---	Où votre père prend-il ses vêtements?

Inversion with je

Inversion with je is reasonably common with a handful of common short verbs or in the odd set expression:

dois-je faire une réservation?
puis-je faire une réservation?
suis-je obligé de faire une réservation?
il est... comment dirais-je?... un peu stupide he is... how shall I put it...? a bit stupid

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