Interrogative Sentences in French

Interrogative sentences or questions in French

Interrogative sentences in French (La phrase interrogative) are sentences through which you can request information or ask questions. In French there are several ways to ask a question and they are:

Question with intonation.

Questions that begin with est-ce que and
Question with invertion (verb and subject switch places),

Some examples of interrogative sentences in French are:

Tu es prêt à commencer la leçon? – Are you ready to start the lesson? (Intonation)
Est-ce que tu parles français? – Do you speak French? (est-ce que)
Veut elle courir ? – Does she want to run ? (Inversion)

Structures of interrogative sentences in French

How to ask questions in French?

1. Questions with question intonation (rising intonation)

Questions with intonation are formed like an affirmative sentence (Subject + Verb + Complement) but with a question tone and also, an interrogation sign is added at the end.

Tu veux boire quelque chose? – You want to drink something?
Ils aiment le foot? – They like football?
Il est bien? – He is ok?

The question mark in French

In French, the question mark is placed only at the end of the sentence; the same way is done in English.

2. Questions with est-ce que

a. Questions with est-ce que consist of placing the particle est-ce que before the question.

Est-ce que tu veux boire quelque chose? – Do you want to drink something?
Est-ce qu’il est bien? – Is he ok? (the final e of est ce que, is removed when the following word starts with a vowel, in this case it’s il)
Est-ce que nous allons rester ? – Are we staying ?

b. If the question has an interrogative pronoun like “who”, “how?” or a preposition like “with”, “from” and others, they are placed before the particle est-ce que.

Où est-ce que tu as acheté ce gâteau? – Where did you buy this cake?
Avec qui est-ce qu’elle vas venir? – Who is she going to come with?
De qui est-ce que vous parlez? – What are you talking about?

Broken down:

Preposition	Interrogative pronoun	est-ce que	subject	verb	complement
De	qui	est-ce que	vous	parlez	maintenat?
	Où	est-ce	tu	as acheté	ce gâteau

3. Inverted questions

In inverted questions, the places of the subject and the verb are inverted. Instead of being Subject + Verb, it’s Verb + Subject, it’s more formal, see the differences below.

Question with inversion	Question with intonation
Veut il venir demain? – Does we want to come tomorrow?	Il veut venir demain? – He wants to come tomorrow?
Serons nous les directeurs? – Will we be the directors ?	Nous serons les directeurs? – We will be the directors?

Interrogative pronouns in French

Interrogative pronouns are words used to ask questions, they tend to go at the beginning of the sentences.

French Interrogative pronouns chart
Interrogative pronouns	English	Sentences with interrogative pronouns
qui	who	Qui est tu?	Who are you?
à qui	who	A qui tu parles?	Who are you talking to?
que/qu’	what	qu’est ce que tu manges ?que fait il lá ?	What are you eating? What is he doing there?
quoi	what	Quoi de neuf?	What’s new?
à quoi de quoi avec quoi sur quoi		A quoi pensé elle? De quoi tu parles? Le détail vec quoi je l’observe. Le problème sur quoi nous devons nous concentrer	What is she thinking? What are you talking about? The detail with which I observe it. The problem we need to focus on.
où	where	Où est il?	Where is he?
d’où	From where	d’où venez vous?	Where do you come from?
quand	when	Je veux savoir quand nous partirons	I want to know when we leave.
comment	How	Comment tu t’apelles?	What’s your name?
pourquoi	Why	Pourquoi ils disent ça?	Why do they say that?
quel (quelle, quels…)	Which	Quelle couleur voulez vous?	Which color do you want?
lequel	Which or the one	Voila les gateaux, lequel voulez vous ?	Here are the cakes, which one do you want?
combien	How much	Combien de chats as-elles?	How many cats do they have?

Example of a dialogue in French with interrogative sentences

– Excusez-moi, où est-ce que je peux prendre le train? – Excuse me, where can I catch the train?

– Salut, Vous allez au sud? – Hi, are you going south?

– Oui, j’ay vais – Yes, I’m going there.

– Allez à la station « Gare du Nord » Go to the station “Gare du Nord”

– C’est très loin? – Is far away ?

-Non, c’est á 10 minutes d’ici. – No, it’s 10 minutes from here.