Asking questions in French-Interrogation

In a linguistic context, “interrogation” refers to the act of asking questions or the formation of interrogative sentences. Interrogation is a fundamental aspect of language used to seek information, clarify doubts, or engage in conversations by posing inquiries. Based on the situation there are different forms of interrogative sentences that can be used.

Purpose of Interrogation:

• Seeking Information: Interrogative sentences are used to acquire knowledge, clarification, or details about a particular subject or topic.
• Engaging in Conversation: Questions play a crucial role in conversations by encouraging interaction and prompting others to participate by providing answers or opinions.

This is one of the easiest topics at this level. There are four different ways of asking questions in French. 

• an affirmative sentence can be turned into a question by making your voice go up at the end of the sentence verbally and ending it with a question mark in writing.
• by using the phrase est-ce que at the beginning of a question.
• inversion which is done by changing the order of words in a sentence, specifically the pronoun and verb order.
• last is by using a question word

Types of Interrogative Sentences:

1.  Rising Intonation- Asking a question by changing the tone

You can make interrogative sentences by changing the tone of an affirmative sentence. If the answer to your question could be a yes or no type of answer, there is a very straightforward way of asking a question. In spoken language, the tone of voice often rises at the end of a sentence to indicate it’s a question. For instance, “You’re coming?” with a rising tone indicates a question. Any affirmative sentence can be sounded like a question with the rising intonation and in written form it ends with a question mark.

• Vous parlez français? – You speak French?
• Tu es malade? – You are sick?
• Il regarde la télé? – He is watching television?

2. Asking a question by using est-ce que..?

This is another format that can be used to form questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” For example:

• Are you coming with us?
• Did you finish your homework?

This type of question can be formed using the ‘Est-ce que’ phrase in French. 

Est-ce que……… ? simply means – Did you ….?/ Do you …?/Is it ……? kind of questions.

The phrase est-ce que is used to turn a phrase into a question. The sentence still contains the usual subject and the verb, Est-ce que is added before the subject, and the verb comes after the subject. So to turn the sentence vous parlez français (You speak French) into a question, all you need to do is to add est-ce que, Est-ce que vous parlez français?

• Est-ce que vous parlez français? – Do you speak French?
• Est-ce que tu es malade? – Are you sick?
• Est-ce qu’il regarde la télé? – Is he watching television?
• Est-ce qu’elle étudie bien? – Does she study well?

3. Asking a question by changing word order- Inversion

We know by now that in normal sentences, the verb comes AFTER the subject. In Inversion as the name indicates we reverse or inverse the order and, the verb is put BEFORE the subject in this question form. So to turn the sentence vous parlez français (You speak French) into a question, we need to inverse the subject and the verb as so, Parlez-vous français? There are a few rules to remember while using inversion.

a. As we can imagine, the inversion would not be really used with the pronoun ‘je’ because it is rare to ask yourself a question out loud. It works only with a few verbs, 

• Où suis-je ?- Where am I?
• pourrais-je…, puis-je… – May I…..? and a few more

b. Inversion with “tu”, “nous” and “vous” works as shown in the example above by just inverting the verb and the subject pronoun, and adding a hyphen.

• Aimez- vous le café au lait? – Do you like coffee with milk?
• Avec qui partons-nous ? – With whom are we leaving?
• De qui parlez-vous? – About whom are you speaking?

c. For inversion in the third person singular with Il, Elle when inversion results in two vowel sounds together, it is necessary to add the letter -t for euphony or ease of pronunciation. We need not do this when the conjugated verb form ends in T or D in which case we do a liaison to make the T sound.  All ‘er’ verbs with the third person singular will result in a  hiatus with a verb and also a few other irregular verbs like aller, avoir etc where we have no T.

• Que parle-t-il? (tel) – What is she speaking?
• Où va-t-il? ( va teel) – Where is he going?
• Quand prend-il le bus? – When is he taking the bus?
• Marche-t-elle à la plage? – Is she walking on the beach?
• Peut-elle porter un sac lourd? – Can she carry a heavy bag?
• The same rule applies to the pronoun ‘On’
• À quelle heure a-t-on rendez-vous ? (a ton) – At what time is our meeting?

Note: When you say the inversion, for il, elle, on, ils, elles you will always do the liaison and hear “teel, tel, ton” irrespective of the way it’s written.

d. When using inversion with proper nouns, we will put the subject’s name just before the verb, then do the inversion with the pronoun. The pronoun has to be used just to maintain the format of the question form and to be grammatically correct else, it has no real value.

• Où Anna habite-t-elle ? – Where does Anna live?
• Pourquoi Marc et Pierre attendent-ils pour Anne ? – Why are Marc and Pierre waiting for Anne?
• Le spectacle dure-t-il longtemps?  Does the show last long?

However, in such scenarios, it is simpler to use the colloquial modern French way to ask the question like.

• Anna habite ou? Où habite Anna? or Où est-ce qu’Anna habite? – Where does Anna live?
• Pourquoi est-ce que Marc et Pierre attendent-ils pour Anne ? – Why are Marc and Pierre waiting for Anne?
• Il dure longtemps le spectacle? – Does the show last long?

In spoken French, the pronoun may come before the verb, and the noun or name may come at the end of the sentence.

4. Using a question word to make interrogative sentences

Another common way to make a question is to use a question word like When, Where, What, How, How much etc Below is a list of most commonly used French question words:

• Où (where)
• Quand (when)
• Pourquoi (why)
• Qui (who)
• Que (what)
• Quoi (what)
• Comment (how)
• Combien (how much/how many)

All these question words can be used together with est-ce que as well.

• Où va-t-il ce soir? – Where is he going tonight?
• Où est-ce qu’on trouve le musée? – Where can I find the museum?
• Quand est-ce que le professeur arrive? – When does the professor arrive?
• Quand partez-vous en vacances? – When are you going on vacation?
• Pourquoi tu n’achètes pas une voiture? – Why don’t you buy a car?
• Tu prends quel train? – Which train do you take?
• Quel train est-ce que tu prends? – What train do you take?
• Où est-ce qu’ils vont? –  Where are they going?
• Combien coûtent les tomates? – How much do the tomatoes cost?
• Comment ça va? – How are you?

Note: “Ou” means ‘or’ as in – I would like the red or green. – Je voudrais du rouge ou du vert.

Quel/quels/quelle/quelles (what/which)

In French, the word “quel” is an interrogative adjective that means “what” or “which” in English. It is used to ask questions about nouns in terms of their identity or characteristics. The form of “quel” changes based on the gender and number of the noun it describes.

Here’s how to use the “quel” question form in French:

• Singular Forms:
  • Masculine singular: “Quel” is used before a masculine singular noun.
    • Example: Quel livre lis-tu ? – Which book are you reading?
  • Feminine singular: “Quelle” is used before a feminine singular noun.
    • Example: Quelle heure est-il ? (What time is it?)
• Plural Forms:
  • Masculine plural: “Quels” is used before a masculine plural noun.
    • Example: Quels films préférez-vous ? (Which movies do you prefer?)
  • Feminine plural: “Quelles” is used before a feminine plural noun.
    • Example: Quelles langues parlez-vous ? (Which languages do you speak?)

In each case, “quel” agrees in gender and number with the noun it refers to. Here are a few more examples of using “quel” in questions:

• Quel est ton plat préféré ?- What is your favorite dish?
• Quelle est ta couleur préférée ? – What is your favorite color?
• Quels sont tes projets pour cet été ? – What are your plans for this summer?
• Quelles sont les matières que tu étudies ? – Which subjects are you studying? 

Remember, to ask questions using “quel,” it’s essential to match its form (quel, quelle, quels, quelles) with the noun’s gender and number in the question.

5. Apart from these there are also two important question phrases

• Qu’est-ce que c’est? – What is it? or What are these
• Qui est-ce? – Who is this/it? – Qui – Who?

Exercises:

Find the questions for the below answers:

1. Elle a un chien brun. – She has a brown dog.
2. J’habite à Delhi. – I live in Delhi.
3. Il achète des livres. – He bought some books.
4. Ce sont des crayons. – These are pencils.
5. Il est médecin – He is a doctor.
6. Le marché est là bas. – The market is over there.
7. Les pommes sont rouges – The apples are red.
8. J’aime les sciences et les maths. – I like science and math.
9. Oui, ils prennent l’avion.
10. La table est basse.