Interrogation

Interrogation

Question Words

  • They are words used to provoke a question commonly used in front or at the end of sentences in French.
  • Question words:
Question wordsMeaning
Que/Qu’est-ce queWhat
QuandWhen
PourquoiWhy
CommentHow
Where
À quelle heureAt what time
QuiWho
Avec quiWith who
CombienHow much
Combien de tempsHow long

Asking a question

  • Demander – To ask; Poser – To put down.
  • When you want to say “To ask a question” in French, you must say “Poser une question”.
  • Saying “Demander une question” is incorrect.

Open-ended Questions

  • They are questions that requires an answer where it is not limited to any fixed response.
  • There are two main ways to form an open-ended question:
    • Front:
      • Question words can be placed in front of the sentence.
      • Using only question words will require inversion of the subject and verb joined with a hyphen.
      • Using questions words + est-ce que will not require inversion.
    • Back:
      • Questions words can be placed at the back of the sentence, but note that inversion is not required for this.

Close-ended Questions

  • They are questions that requires an answer where it is limited to a number of responses (Yes and No).
  • There are three main ways to form a close-ended question:
    • Intonation
      • This works by taking a regular statement and raising your voice at the end of the sentence which will imply that the statement is a question.
    • Inversion
      • The subject and verb switch places and are joined with a hyphen and it is automatically recognized as a question.
    • Est-ce que
      • Est-ce que is placed in front a regular statement and it is automatically recognized as a question.

Euphonic Inversion

  • When the subject and the verb inverts to create a question, there may be an instance where two vowels are next to each other.
  • In this case, a -t- is added in-between to maintain euphony when words are pronounced. 
  • It only applies to subject pronouns il, elle and on

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