Asking Questions — Lesson A1

French has three ways to form yes/no questions — choose the right one for the context

Three Ways to Ask Yes/No Questions

English only uses inversion (Is she here?) or a tag (She's here, isn't she?). French has three full methods, ordered from informal to formal.

Method	How	Register
Rising intonation	Statement + ? (voice rises)	spoken, informal
Est-ce que…	Add est-ce que before statement	spoken and written, neutral
Inversion	Swap verb and subject pronoun	formal, written

Simply say the statement with a rising voice at the end. In writing, add a question mark.

Est-ce que (literally "is it that") goes at the start of the sentence. The word order after it stays the same (subject + verb).

Swap the subject pronoun and the conjugated verb, linked with a hyphen. Only used in formal writing and careful speech.

For information questions, question words come at the start (like English):

Avoid	Use	Why
Do you speak = Est-ce que vous parlez (NOT Do est-ce que)	Est-ce que vous parlez français?	Don't translate 'do'. Est-ce que replaces the whole 'do you' construction.
Il parle-t-il?	Parle-t-il?	With inversion, remove the subject noun if there's a pronoun: 'Paul parle-t-il' (not 'il parle-t-il').
Parle-il?	Parle-t-il?	When the verb ends in a vowel and subject is il/elle/on, insert -t-: parle-t-il, mange-t-elle.
Qu'est-ce que vs Qu'est-ce qui	Qu'est-ce que je fais / Qu'est-ce qui se passe	Qu'est-ce que = what (object); Qu'est-ce qui = what (subject, with no following subject).