How do you form a question in french language?

Answer 1

There are several ways of forming questions in French, some of them are rather complicated 1) The yes-no question for a question that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no' (in french it is called une question fermée (a closed question)) There are three possiblities 1a : Est-ce que + subject + verb ?(relaxed) you just need to put est-ce que before the pronoun and the verb est-ce que tu travailles? do you work?est-ce que tu viens demain? are you coming tomorrow?est-ce que tu as des frères et soeurs? have you got any brothers and sisters? You can also just use the affirmative way and add a question mark (very relaxed) 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?

1c : The formal form

Verb + subject ? if you want to be more formal Travailles-tu ? Viens-tu demain ? As-tu des frères et sœurs ? Important : Note the hyphen between the the verb and the noun

2) The partial questions with adverbs or interrogative pronoun (who, when, where, etc.) 2a) for the first relaxed form like in Ia, you just need to put the appropriate French adverb (quand, où, qui) at the beginning of the sentence. Quand est-ce que tu viens ? -When will you come ? Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? - what are you doing ? ("qu'" is the contraction of que (what in interrogative form) before words beginning with a vowel) Quand est-ce que tu pars ? when are you leaving? 2b) for the very relaxed form (like in 1b) you just need to put the appropriate French adverb (quand, où, qui) at the end of the sentence tu vas où? where are you going? tu viens quand ? When will you come? tu fais quoi? what are you doing?(note that quoi is used, because the sentence is made like an affirmative sentence like in 1b) Note Withpourquoi (why) , the normal way to ask is with the "est-ce-que ..?" way pourquoi est-ce que tu ne viens pas? why aren't you coming? 2c : adverb + Verb + subject ? if you want to be more formal, like in 1c, add the adverb at the beggining Que fais-tu ? - What are you doing ? (Que, not quoi, because this is a "real" interrogative form) Quand viens-tu ? When will you come ? Combien as-tu de frères et sœurs ? How many brothers and sisters do you have ? Remember the hyphen between the the verb and the subject

3) When subject is a noun phrase (not a pronoun) When the subject is a noun phrase, the formal form will be, depending on the circumstances: Like with the pronoun : où travaille ta soeur ? Where does your sister work ? Or you can invert the noun group with the verb and add the correspondant pronoun, I will call this "the extended formal form" adv + noun group + verb + pronoun ?

où ton père travaille-t-il ? The extended formal form will be used in situations where the inversion (verb+subject) will place the object of the relative sentence just next to the noun group Example : where did your mother buy this delicious cake ? Où ta mère a-t-elle acheté ce gâteau ? == Où a acheté ta mère ce délicieux gâteau ?

=== === Inversion with third person pronouns : The third person pronouns, in French, all begin with a vowel (il, elle, on) . When the verb is placed before one of these pronouns in the formal form, a -t- sound will always occur between the verb and the pronoun to ease the pronunciation. If the spelling of the verb doesn't already end in a t sound, then one is added explicitly between two hyphens travaille-t-il?mange-t-elle? écoute-t-on? When the verb ends with a -d or a -t, no insertion is needed. However, the pronunciation will always be "t" prend-il? finit-il?voulait-elle? == The inversion with je is possible with the modal French verbs avoir and être, and verbs like pouvoir and devoir (called "verbes d'état" in French) Suis-je beau ? Am I beautiful ? Ai-je de l'argent ? Do I have money ? Puis-je venir ? Can I come ? Dois-je téléphoner avant de venir ? Should I call you before coming ? But with je (I), the inverted form is sometimes not possible at all, and to be honest, even if it was, it could be considered as ridiculous snobbishness. Those are generally found in literature. So, it is usual not to use the formal form with other verbs in spoken French. Que comprends-je ? - is hard to pronounce So forget the formal form and use the relaxed forms. Anyway when when it is possible or pronounceable, it would be considered snobbish or even aggressively mocking.

Answer 2

In French, typically you invert the subject pronoun and the verb to form a question. For example, "Tu aimes le français" (You like French) becomes "Aimes-tu le français?" (Do you like French?). You can also add question words like "qui" (who), "quoi" (what), "quand" (when), "où" (where), "pourquoi" (why), or "comment" (how) at the beginning of the sentence to form more complex questions.