Questions and Daily Routines

Grammar

Yes/No Questions

There are three ways to form questions in French that can be answered with oui (yes) or non (no).

Intonation

In informal conversations, a question that can be answered by a oui or non can be asked by a rising intonation at the end of a sentence. In informal writing you just add a question mark to the end of the sentence. Notice that in French, there is a space between the last word in the sentence and the question mark.

Using est-ce que

Another way to ask a question that can be answered by oui or non is to place Est-ce-que (Is it that) in front of a statement. This is common in both spoken and written French.

Note: If the subject begins with a vowel (e.g., il, elle, on, ils, elles), est-ce que is contracted to Est-ce qu'

Subject and Verb Inversion

Another way to ask a question that can be answered by oui or non is to invert the verb and the subject of the sentence and separate them by a hyphen. If the verb ends in a vowel and the subject is il/elle/on, insert -t- between the verb and the pronoun. In this case, the t is pronounced. Using subject and verb inversion tends to be used in more formal contexts.

Questions Words

You can ask questions that require more than a oui or non answer by starting the sentence with one of the following question words.

Quel Changes form to match the gender and number of the noun it precedes (Quel, Quelle, Quels, Quelles).

Examples

Combien can be used by itself where it acts like a pronoun, or it can be used like combien de + noun + verb.

Examples

The other question words can be either followed by est-ce que or the verb followed by the subject.

Examples

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs are verbs where the action is performed by the subject on itself. They are always used with a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se).

Here is the present tense conjugation for se lever (to get up):