Poser des Questions – How to Ask Questions in French 

Today we will learn comment poser des questions en Français – how to ask questions in French.

In English, there are so many ways to ask questions. For example, to ask where someone is going, you could say:

a. Are you going somewhere?

b. You going somewhere?

c. Going somewhere?

d. Where are you going?

All of them are correct and mean the same thing, but there are slight differences.

A is a formal close-ended question (une question fermée), this means that it can be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No”. It is up to you to decide if to add any other information.

B and C are informal close-ended questions.

D is an open-ended question (une question ouverte). This means that it requires more than a simple yes or no response.

 

In French, just like in English, there are so many ways to ask questions so today, I will be teaching you some of them.

 

Les mots interrogatifs  —  Interrogative words

Les mot interrogatifs  are question words that are used to ask things like what, which, when, where and how.

They appear in a lot of French sentences so it is important to learn their meanings and pronunciations.

 

There are 3 basic groups of les mots interrogatifs, and they are:

a. Les pronoms interrogatifs:

• Qui — Who/Whom?
• Que — What?
• Quoi – What?
• Lequel/Laquelle (Lequels, Laquelles) – Who/Which?

 

b. Les adverbes interrogatifs

• Combien – How much/many?
• Comment – How?
• Pourquoi – Why?
• Quand – When?
• Où – Where?

 

c. Les adjectifs interrogatifs

• Quel (Quels, Quelle, Quelles) – What/Which?

 

As we go on, you will learn how to ask questions in French using les mots interrogatifs but for now, learn them and know what they mean.

 

Comment Poser des Questions en Français – How to Ask Questions in French

1. Make a statement a question

Just as it is possible to change an affirmative statement in English to a question by adding a question mark at the end of the sentence and changing the pitch of your voice, it is also possible to do the same in French. For example:

• Tu veux aller à l’église – You want to go to church.
• Tu veux aller à l’église? – Do you want to go to church?

 

• Il achète les tomates – He is buying tomatoes.
• Il achète les tomates? – Is he buying tomatoes?

 

• Tu crois qu’il ment – You think he is lying.
• Tu crois qu’il ment? – Do you think is lying?

 

Notice how these are all close-ended questions?

To ask open-ended questions, all you need to do is add a mot interrogatif e.g.

 

• Tu veux quoi? – What do you want?
• Tu va où? – Where are you going?
• Il achète quoi? – What is he buying?

 

2. Flip your verb-pronoun placement (Inversion)

In French, to ask a formal question, you can just flip the verb – pronoun placement in an affirmative sentence.

We do the same in English when we flip the position of the words “He is” to “Is he?”.

 

For example,

He is a boy – Statement

Is he a boy? – Question

 

To do this in French, all you have to do is flip from pronoun + verb to verb + pronoun and then add a hyphen between both words.

Par exemple,

 

• Tu veux aller à l’église – You want to go to church. (Statement)
• Veux-tu aller à l’église? – Do you want to go to church? (Question)

 

• Tu crois qu’il ment – You think he is lying.  (Statement)
• Crois-tu qu’il ment? Do you think is lying? (Question)

 

See how simple it is? The popular <<Comment vas-tu?>> and <<Comment allez-vous?>> are examples of inversions used to ask questions.

 

When you flip the words, if the verb ends with a vowel and the pronoun begins with a vowel (il, elle and on), you have to add a <<-t->> between the verb and pronoun just so it sounds better.

For example,

 

• Il achète les tomates – He is buying tomatoes.
• Achète-t-il les tomates? – Is he buying tomatoes?

 

• Elle aime les chansons françaises – She likes French songs
• Aime-t-elle les chanson françaises? – Does she like French songs?

 

And if you want to make it open-ended, choose your mot interrogatif and place it at the beginning of the question, e.g.

• Quelle heure est-il? – What time is it?
• Quand écoute-t-elle la radio – When does she listen to the radio?
• Où vas-tu? – Where are you going?

 

 

3. Use <<Est-ce que>>

Est-ce que is what I like to think of as a question phrase. It is what you add to a simple statement to make it very clearly a question.

I’ll show you how.

 

• Tu veux aller à l’église – You want to go to church.
• Est-ce que tu veux aller à l’église? – Do you want to go to church?

 

• Il achète les tomates – He is buying tomatoes.
• Est-ce qu’il achète les tomates? – Is he buying tomatoes?

 

• Tu crois qu’il ment – You think he is lying.
• Est-ce que tu crois qu’il ment? – Do you think he is lying?

 

To ask open-ended questions, select the appropriate mot interrogatif  and place it before <<Est-ce que>> e.g.

 

• Quand est-ce que tu veux aller à l’église? – When do you want to go to church?

• Où est-ce qu’il achète les tomates? – Where does he buy tomatoes?

 

Some people have asked what the difference between <<Est-ce que>> and <<Qu’est-ce que>> is.

Here it is, Qu’est-ce que is formed by putting le mot interrogatif <<Que>> in front of <<Est-ce que>> and is it used to ask “What”.

 

Here’s what I mean:

• Est-ce que tu veux acheter les tomates? – Do you want to buy tomatoes?
• Qu’est-ce que tu achètes? – What are you buying?

 

• Est-ce que tu chantes? – Are you singing?
• Qu’est-ce que tu chantes? – What are you singing?

 

 

4. Using question words (Les mots interrogatifs)

Just like in English, there are ways to add words like “Who, Where, What and Which” to sentences to make them questions.

If I say “The girl who sings”, even though “who” is an interrogative word, you know that this is not a question because of the way “who” is used.

But if I say “Who is the girl singing?”, you understand very clearly that it is a question.

Here are some examples of how to use question words:

 

• Qui chante à l’église – Who is singing in the church?
• Où sont mes livres – Where are my books?
• Pourquoi tu achètes les tomates? – Why are you buying tomatoes?
• C’est combien? –  How much is it
• Comment ca va? – How are you
• Quelle heure est-t-il? – What time is it

 

That’s all for today, folks!

I hope this has taught you how to ask questions in French.

If you are having any difficulties, just take a deep breath, take it from the top and take it slow.

 

Don’t forget to check out our previous lessons.  If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comment box below.

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