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by GiraffeyedDonor-ish on February 12th, 2008

GiraffeyedDonor-ish

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What are the different ways of making a question in French?

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Answers. 2 helpful answers below.

  • by TheGlove on February 12th, 2008

    TheGlove

    Here are a few ways of starting a question...

    where : où
    why : pourquoi
    how : comment
    when : quand
    who : qui
    what : quoi (not often used like this to start a question)

    you can ask a question many ways in both languages, Here are some of the basics:

    You can ask a question by inferring something, hard to explain or even word that in English... it would be like this in english... So you are going out tonight? - We put an emphasis on the final word of the sentence to infer a question. How it would look in French : "Sortez-vous ce soir?" I guess to understand that sentence you need a slight background in french... Sortez = Going out; vous = you, ce soir = tonight. - This is a type of question without using one of our "five W's" (for the english rule).

    To ask questions using the "five W's" (who, what, when where, why) we started in the same format.

    Qu'est-ce que tu fais? - what are you doing? The word quoi followed by est-ce que; the vowels all together make a conjunction in the word, what in french we call a "liason"; when combining two words linked by vowels together. So quoi-est-ce que, in this sense is working as "what are"... the 'est' is a part of the verb 'être' (to be). - This same format is used with when; 'quand est-ce que tu sort?' (when are you going out); and it can work with all "five W's" (and how) - 'Comment est-ce que tu fais ça?' (How are you doing that); and so on... with all 6. (five W's + how)

    One other way; and trust me there are many more ways of asking a question would be like the example of a question like "are you small?" in english. This is a question even though it does not include the who, what, when, where, why or how. This can be asked two ways. "Es-tu petit?" or "Est-ce que tu es petit?" - or Can I go out? - "Est-ce que je peux sortir?" This one is harder to explain and use.

    Feel free to ask questions back.. It's hard to know what level of french I should be explaining this to, but if you need any help, let me know. Hope this helps. I can help more and dumb it down, or up it to a higher level if needed.

    edit: One thing I noticed I went back and forth on was the way of using the word 'you'... In french, the word 'vous' means you, so does 'tu'. Vous being more formal; or if speaking to a large group of people (example: you guys) where it is plural. 'Tu' is less formal and always when just speaking to one person. You would most likely say "tu" to a friend and "vous" towards a professor.

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  • by Anonymous on April 27th, 2009

    Anonymous

    Gloves answer is amazing, just want to add to that. You can start with est-ce que if you're asking someone, Do you... or instead of doing that you can stick nest-ce pas at the end.

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