Question

Y/N Questions and Wh-Questions

Y/N questions exist in order to find out the agreement or disagreement with the idea expressed. The answer to this type of question is Yes or No. There is no question word used here.

Vous êtes journaliste? (Are you a journalist?)

Wh- questions focus on more detailed, new or additional information. They begin with question words où, quand, comment, pourquoi, ...? which are in the French intonation question very often placed at the end:

Vous mangez quand? (When do you eat?)

Question Forms

The question is formed in three different ways:

- by the intonation
- with the help of the question particle est-ce que
- by the inversion (i.e. change in word order)

The individual question types differ by the use and language level. While the intonation questions are seen as the most colloquial and we can hear them during a normal conversation in the street, the question made by the inversion is seen as the most formal (= langue soutenue - official language) - but in no case as an archaic version. There is no fixed rule saying which question type to use in which situation, and it is always up to the speaker. But we can generally say that with the official, mostly written language, the inverse question is preferred.
With some idiomatic expressions, the native speakers usually prefer using one way of question forming, although using the other ways would not be a mistake (e.g. Comment allez-vous? - How do you do? is mostly created by inversion).

The intonation question

The difference between the question and the affirmative is made only by the intonation. The word order stays the same:

Vous allez bien? (Are you fine?)

The question word in the intonation question is placed at the end of a sentence:

Le stage se passe comment? (How is the residency going?)

Question formed by the est-ce que question particle

The question particle is usually not translated. It is placed at the sentence beginning and the following word order is the same as in the affirmative sentence. In case the question is made by a question word, this is placed at the beginning of the sentence in front of the est-ce que expression:

Est-ce que vous avez des enfants? (Do you have children?)
Quand est-ce que vous finissez? (When do you finish?)

The inversion question

The inversion is formed by the change in the word order, i.e. the exchange of the placement of the noun and verb. In written language it is graphically shown by the linking. In simple inversion, focused in this chapter, the question is made by using the pronouns (not the nouns):

Aimez-vous Brahms?
Comment allez-vous à Florac?

With verbs not ending in “d” or “t” in the 3rd person singular, the letter “t” is inserted, which enables linking with the following subject expressed by the pronouns il, elle or on: Comment va-t-il?

The question word of qu’est-ce que ?

qu’est-ce que? (What?)

Qu’est-ce que c’est comme cadeau? (What kind of present is it?)
Qu’est-ce qu’il aime? (What does he like?)