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Lucy Turns Pages: Learning French Journal #7 Asking Questions

Learning French Journal #7 Asking Questions

Hi everyone! I've been trying to teach myself French for a while and I thought it would be fun to create some blog posts as I go along to help myself study so I will be doing regular posts on French. In my last post I discussed asking how someone is, answering this and being polite. In this post I will be looking at some information about asking questions. Please note this is not a study guide, if I make any mistakes please let me know!

Question Mark Illustration

Asking question:
To ask a question, increase your tone at the end of a sentence, put est-ce que (ehs kuh) at the front of the sentence, change the order of the words in the sentence or use a question word.

Raising your voice at the end of a sentence:
If you make your voice rise at the end of a sentence, you can turn it into a question. This can use the format of subject then verb. E.g. C'est vrai = That's true / C'est vrai? = Is that true?

Using est-ce que:
Use est-ce que followed by a normal sentence (subject then verb) e.g. Est-ce que tu connais (name)? Do you know ....?

Changing word order:
The format of a sentence is subject then verb. For a question you can change the word order to verb then subject. You can change the word order when the subject is a pronoun e.g. vous, elle. When you do this you can include a hyphen after the verb but before the pronoun.

E.g.
Vous (subject) aimez (verb) la France - You like France
Aimez- (verb) vous (subject) la France? - Do you like France?

Using question words:
A question word can be used in all of the instances above. How to use a question word:
When you raise your voice - place the question word at the end of a sentence
When you use est-ce que- the question word goes at the start of the sentence
When you change the word order- the question word goes at the start of a sentence e.g. Quand arrivez- (verb) vous (subject)? - When do you arrive?

Question words:
à quelle heure (ah kehl uhr)- at what time
combien de (kohN-byaN duh)- how many
Combien (kohN-byaN)- how much
Comment (koh-mahN)- how
Où (ooh)- where
Pourquoi (poohr-kwah)- why
Qu'est-ce que (kehs kuh)- what
Quand (kahN)- when
Quel(s)/quelle(s) (kehl) - which, what
Qui (kee) - who

Some typical questions:

A yes or no question:
Vous habitez près d'ici? (vooh zah-bee-tey prey dee-see?)- Do you live near here?

Answering a yes or no question:
Oui- yes
Non- no 
Si- yes when answering a question with a negative in. Si also means if. 

Formal
Où habitez-vous? (ooh ah-bee-tey-vooh?) - Where do you live?
Quel âge avez-vous? (kehl ahzh ah-vey-vooh?) - How old are you?

Informal
Quel âge as-tu? (kehl ahzh ah-tew?) - How old are you?

Answer:
J'ai ... ans - I am.../I have ... years. (Uses the verb avoir (to have))

Liked this post? Check out my French learning page here or improve your proficiency with Babbel (affiliate link).

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