Parler et ecouter

Demander looks like demand and is nothing of the sort. Je demande means I ask, with no force behind it at all. The verb for demanding is exiger, and it is a much heavier word.

This is one of the most reliable false friends between the two languages, and it goes wrong in both directions: French speakers writing English often sound peremptory, and English speakers reading French often think they are being ordered about.

You do not demander a question

You pose one. Poser une question is the fixed phrase, and demander une question is wrong in a way that sounds odd rather than merely foreign.

• Je vous pose une question. I am asking you a question.
• Je vous demande de partir. I am asking you to leave.
• Il m'a demandé mon nom. He asked me my name.

Demander quelque chose à quelqu'un is to ask someone for something. Note that the à marks the person, not the thing, which is the reverse of the English preposition.

Entendre and ecouter

Entendre is to hear, the thing your ears do without permission. Écouter is to listen, which takes intent. The distinction matters more in French than in English because both verbs are common and neither covers for the other.

Écouter takes a direct object with no preposition: j'écoute la radio, never j'écoute à la radio.

Comprendre and its cousin

Comprendre is to understand. It is also to include: le prix comprend le petit déjeuner. Same word, and context always sorts it out.

Entendre has an old sense of understanding too, which survives in bien entendu, meaning of course.

Two ways to be wrong

Mentir is to lie deliberately. Se tromper is to be mistaken. Accusing somebody of the first when you meant the second is a considerably worse mistake than any grammatical one in this session.