Ch 1 · Lesson 6French · Chapter 1 · Lesson 6 · Grammar primer
Asking a question: three ways
Raise your voice, in front, or swap verb and pronoun: ?, ?, - ?
The short version
turns any statement into a question
?
Why?Hide
French has three ways to ask a yes-or-no question: raise your voice at the end, in front, or swap the verb and pronoun. Inversion is the formal one and the easiest to get wrong. is never wrong anywhere, so reach for it whenever you are unsure.
Divergence 3: Three question forms
French has three ways to ask the same yes-or-no question, from casual to formal.
| Form | French | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Intonation | ? | Casual speech |
? | Safe anywhere | |
| Inversion | - ? | Formal, written |
All three mean Do you speak French? The trap is the formal one.
- Intonation keeps statement order and raises the voice at the end:
?- Are you eating here? - (literally is it that) goes in front of the statement:
?- Are you eating here? - Inversion swaps verb and pronoun, joined by a hyphen:
- ?- Are you eating here?
When the verb ends in a vowel and the pronoun is or , inversion adds a -- so the two vowels do not collide:
-t- ?- Does he speak French?-t- ?- Does Marie speak French? (a noun subject keeps its place and adds a pronoun)
If unsure, use : it is never wrong. Questions with , and are on French question words.
Going further: The SVO baseline and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
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One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
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Lesson 6 of 14 in this chapter