How to Form a Question in French

Forming a French question is often taught a little bit here and a little bit there in textbooks and class. This often makes the concept seem overly confusing and the skill difficult to master. However, it can actually be boiled down to three easy steps.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• paper
• writing utensil
• list of question words provided in step one

1. Pick a "question word" that indicates what specific kind of answer you're looking for. For example who, what, where ...
   
   QUESTION WORDS
   Combien = how many
   Comment = how
   Pourquoi = why
   Ou = where
   Quand = when
   Que = what (Que + est-ce que --> qu'est-ce que)
   Qui = who
   Quel/quelle/quels/quelles = which of something (eg. Quelle table
   = which table)
2. Indicate you are asking a question (and not just stating a sentence) by doing one of three things.
   
   1) Use the TONE of your voice. This is, by far, the easiest method and requires the least thought in a face to face situation. If you go with this option, you don't need a question word because you're basically just stating a normal sentence as though it had a question mark at the end. However, these kinds of questions are often limited to "yes" and "no" answers.
   ex. He likes dogs?/Il aime les chiens?
   
   2) Use INVERSION. This means switching the order of the subject and the verb to change something from a statement to a question. This technique is useful when it is necessary to convert an already presented French sentence into question form. If you use inversion with a subject pronoun put in a hyphen (and a "t" too if the verb, such as va, ends with a vowel and the pronoun, such as il or elle, starts with a vowel).
   
   Ex. Comment etes-vous? (How are you?) Comment va-t-elle? (how is she?)
   
   3) The third option is a little more challenging. To use it, you must figure out whether the answer you're looking for is doing an action or having one done to it. In grammatical terms, is it the subject or the object? Once you have this figured out, you can insert either EST-CE QUE (object) or EST-CE QUI (subject) after the question word to indicate that you are asking a question.
   
   These can be tricky to use. One clue is that "est-ce qui" is usually only used when dealing with the question words "que" (what) and "qui" (who). So, if you have already noted that you are using a question word other than these such as "comment"(how), then you are pretty safe using "est-ce que."
   
   One more thing to note is that plain "Qui" can also stand in for the entire expression "Qui est-ce qui" which is a very formal way of speaking. So if your question word is "qui" and your indicator expression is "est-ce qui" you can cross both out and put "Qui" in where they were. Either option is fine.
   
   ex. Qui est-ce qui mange le diner? (Who is eating dinner?)
   *Notice in this example the person is doing the action (eating) so "est-ce qui" is used.
   
   ex. Qui est-ce que tu aimes? (Who do you like?)
   *Notice that the person whom you are asking about is being liked/having the action done to him or her, so "est-ce que" is used.
3. Phew, after Step 2, step 3 is a piece of cake. All you do is fill in any remaining words, either from a French sentence that you are turning into a question or English words you are translating into French.

Tips & Warnings

• Please rate this article up at the top
• The "qui" and "que" options for question words function completely differently that the "qui" and "que" options for indicating a question. This throws a lot of French learners for a loop since they all look the same. Remember that the first choice that you write down deals with whether the answer is a person or thing. The second choice (est-ce que vs. est-ce qui) ONLY has to do whether it is a subject or object. So ask yourself two questions: Is is it a person or thing (qui vs. que) and is it subject vs. object (est-ce qui vs. est-ce que). From these questions you actually have four choices:
• - qu'est-ce que (thing/object)
• - qu'est-ce qui (thing/subject)
• - qui est-ce que (person/object)
• - qui est-ce qui (person/subject) (for this you can also use "qui)