Ways to Ask a Question in French

Ways to Ask a Question in French

We can ask questions in different ways in most languages. Here is how you can ask questions in French.

Poll

How is the following question being asked? Listen to the question and decide how you know someone is asking a question.

• Using their voice

• Mixed up the verb and subject (verb comes first)

• They said a statement and then added a quick phrase, like "isn't it?" or "don't you?"

• Not a question at all

Poll

How is the following question being asked? Listen to the question and decide how you know someone is asking a question.

• Using their voice

• Mixed up the verb and subject (verb comes first)

• They said a statement and then added a quick phrase, like "isn't it?" or "don't you?"

• Not a question at all

Poll

How is the following question being asked? Listen to the question and decide how you know someone is asking a question.

• Using their voice

• Mixed up the verb and subject (verb comes first)

• They said a statement and then added a quick phrase, like "isn't it?" or "don't you?"

• Not a question at all

Poll

How is the following question being asked? Listen to the question and decide how you know someone is asking a question.

• Using their voice

• Mixed up the verb and subject (verb comes first)

• They said a statement and then added a quick phrase, like "isn't it?" or "don't you?"

• Not a question at all

Ways to ask questions

• Intonation

• Inversion

• Tags

• Est-ce que

Intonation

- using your voice alone to ask a question
- the most informal or casual way to ask a question in French.

"Tu aimes la musique?"

Tags

- adding tag phrases like isn't it? or don't you?

• in French, we use n'est-ce pas?

• "Tu aimes la musique, n'est-ce pas?

Est-ce que

- add this phrase to the beginning of any statement to make it a question.



Est-ce que tu aimes la musique ?

Inversion

- Putting the verb or helping verb before the subject

Ex: Aimes-tu la musique ?

Notice the hyphen/dash between the verb and subject. This shows that the words are out of order. Normal word order is Subject + Verb.

This is the most formal way to ask a question.

Multiple Choice

What type of question do you hear?

• Intonation

• Tag

• Est-ce que

• Inversion

Multiple Choice

What type of question do you hear?

• Intonation

• Tag

• Est-ce que

• Inversion

Multiple Choice

What type of question do you hear?

• Intonation

• Tag

• Est-ce que

• Inversion

Multiple Choice

What type of question do you hear?

• Intonation

• Tag

• Est-ce que

• Inversion

Multiple Select

Select all the questions below that are est-ce que questions.....

• Comment ça va?

• Est-ce que tu vas bien?

• Est-ce que ça va?

• Va-t-il bien aujourd'hui?

• Tu vas bien, n'est-ce pas?

Multiple Select

Select all the questions below that are Inversion questions.....

• Comment allez-vous?

• Comment t'appelles-tu?

• Est-ce que ça va?

• A-t-il quinze ans?

• Tu vas bien?

Multiple Select

Select all the questions below that are intonation questions.....

• Comment allez-vous?

• Tu t'appelles comment?

• Est-ce que ça va?

• Il a quinze ans?

• Tu vas bien?

Multiple Choice

What symbol is used between the verb and the subject when their order is reversed ?

• a hyphen / dash

• a colon

• a semi-colon

• a question mark

Multiple Select

What do you notice in this question: Parlez-vous anglais ?

Check all that apply.

• The words are all capitalized

• There is hyphen/dash between the subject and verb words

• There are no question marks

• The subject and the verb are flipped. Parlez-vous instead of vous parlez.

Open Ended

What did you learn today?