Comment poser des questions ? (Yes/No Questions)
3 ways to ask yes/no questions in French and the most important question words.
Every question in French is built from a statement; you just change how you say it, not what you say. There are three ways to ask a yes/no question, and all three are correct. Learn all three: you will hear every one of them in class, in movies, and in everyday conversation. Once you master these patterns, you can turn any French sentence into a question in seconds.
WAY 1 (INTONATION): keep the statement word order, just raise your voice at the end; the form you'll hear most in everyday speech: Tu aimes Paris ? (do you like Paris?)
WAY 2 (EST-CE QUE): add est-ce que ((question marker)) before subject + verb, nothing else changes; neutral and safe everywhere: Est-ce que tu aimes Paris ? (do you like Paris?)
WAY 3 (INVERSION): swap the subject pronoun and verb, joined by a hyphen; formal and written, rare with je: Aimes-tu Paris ? (do you like Paris?)
Common mistake: never combine inversion with est-ce que: 'Est-ce que parles-tu ?' is wrong; pick ONE form
- Tu aimes Paris ? ↗ — Do you like Paris? (intonation)
- Est-ce que tu aimes Paris ? — Do you like Paris? (est-ce que)
- Aimes-tu Paris ? — Do you like Paris? (inversion: formal)
GENDER AGREEMENT: quel/quelle agrees with the noun that follows it, not the person you're asking; quel âge (what age) is masculine, quelle heure (what time) is feminine: Quel âge as-tu ? (how old are you?), Quelle heure est-il ? (what time is it?)
4 FORMS, 1 SOUND: quel / quelle / quels / quelles are spelled differently for gender and number but all pronounced: spelling changes, the sound never does (see the table below)
- Quel âge as-tu ? — How old are you?
- Quelle heure est-il ? — What time is it?
THE -T- RULE in inversion: when il/elle/on ends in a vowel sound, French inserts -t- so the two vowels don't collide: Parle-t-il français (does he speak French) ? (NEVER 'Parle-il'). You never need -t- with tu/nous/vous/ils/elles: those forms already end in a consonant sound
CASUAL SHORTCUT: in relaxed spoken French, question words can move to the END instead: Tu t'appelles comment ? (what's your name?), Tu vas où ? (where are you going?). Very common, but stick to the standard word order (word first) until this feels natural
- Parle-t-il anglais ? — Does he speak English?
- A-t-elle des enfants ? — Does she have children?