WEEK 6 LEON 2 THE INTERROGATIVE FORM IN FRENCH

Goal: Questions are very useful linguistic tools people use to inquire about anything they want. And in this lesson, you will learn how to ask questions in French, too. By the end of this lesson, you should be able to form interrogative sentences by using the est-ce que expression or by using the inversion method (verb + subject). This lesson should be an easy one. By applying 2 simple formulas, you can change any affirmative or negative sentence into an interrogative one. A Using the verb + subject formula to ask questions. To form a question in French, just place the verb before the subject and complete the rest your sentence. So you are simply required to invert the order subject + verb. By subject in this formula, I mean personal pronouns such as JE, TU, IL, ELLE, NOUS etc Look below (on same page) for more explanations about what to do when the subject isnt a personal pronoun. This gives us this formula: Question = Verb + Subject (Personal Pronouns) + remaining of sentence +? [Dont forget to add a dash - between the verb and the subject] Example 1: The sentence Tu parles bien franais (you speak French well) is in the affirmative form. In order to change it into the interrogative form, we simply invert the order Subject + Verb to obtain Verb + Subject. So the result is Parles-tu bien franais? (Do you speak French well?) Very important: 1- #1. Do NOT use this Verb + Subject formula to ask a question if the subject is JE AND the verb is an ER verb (only) such as parler above. So do NOT say for example: Parle-je bien franais? Use instead the est-ce que formula we will learn below. 2- #2. Add -t- between the Verb and the Subject if the subject is IL or ELLE AND the verb is an ER verb (only). For example donner = to give. Elle donne un cadeau= (She gives/is giving a present). When turning this sentence into a question, you should say, Donne-t-elle un cadeau? = (Is she giving a present) 3- #3. If rule # 1 above seems a little complicated to apply, just use the est-ce que formula every time when the subject is JE (even for verbs of different groups) 4- #4. When the subject of the sentence is NOT a personal pronoun such as JE-TU-IL, ELLE etcbut is instead an actual name, place the actual name at the beginning of the sentence, and then complete your question as if you were using a personal pronoun.

WEEK 6 LEON 2 The formula now = Actual name + Verb + Subject (personal pronoun) + remaining of sentence.

Example: Vanessa regarde un film will become Vanessa regarde-t-elle la tl? where Vanessa is the actual name and ELLE is the personal pronoun corresponding to Vanessa. If the actual name was masculine, lets say Marc, the question will be Marc regarde-t-il la tl? where IL is the personal pronoun corresponding to Marc. B Using the magic expression est-ce que to ask questions. In order to ask questions in French, you can also use the est-ce que expression. In order to do that, simply place est-ce que BEFORE the sentence in the affirmative form. I call it magic because you can ask virtually ANY types of questions with it, no matter what the tenses, groups or subjects of the verbs are. Lets see how it works in a real situation. Lets use the same example 1 above. Tu parles bien franais is in affirmative form, right ? To turn this affirmative sentence into an interrogative one, say this : Est-ce que tu parles bien franais? . So all we did was write est-ce que BEFORE tu parles bien franais . I cannot think of any exception to this rule so far. So go ahead and use it freely. The Negative-Interrogative Form in French Well, this was easy. Now, lets make things a little more complex. Lets try to change a negative sentence into a negative-interrogative sentence. For example, what if you wanted to ask somebody: Dont you speak French well? How do we do that in French when using our 2 formulas explained above? Do you still remember these expressions ne pas, ne jamais, ne pas encore , ne plus that we learned last week or so? We will use them in combination with our 2 formulas to form negative interrogative sentences in French. 1- With the verb + subject formula The new formula for negative-interrogative sentences will now be: Ne + Verb + Subject (personal pronoun) + Pas/Jamais/Plus/Pas encore + rest of sentence. Example: Dont you speak French well? = Ne parles-tu pas bien franais ? . Please, remember that Ne would be N if the verb started with a vowel or a silent h. For example: To like = aimer. Dont you like French? = Naimes-tu pas le franais? . To live = habiter. Doesnt she live in Belgium? = Nhabite-t-elle pas en Belgique ? One more example (I love examples): Doesnt she give any present every year anymore? Ne donne-t-elle plus de cadeau tous les ans ?

WEEK 6 LEON 2

Again for negative sentences, when the subject of the sentence is NOT a personal pronoun such as JE-TU-IL-ELLE etcbut is instead an actual name, place the actual name at the beginning of the sentence, and then complete your question as if you were using a personal pronoun. The formula now = Actual name + Verb + Subject (personal pronoun) + Pas/Jamais/Plus/Pas encore + remainder of sentence. Example: Vanessa NE regarde PAS un film will become Vanessa ne regarde-t-elle PAS la tl? where Vanessa is the actual name and ELLE is the personal pronoun corresponding to Vanessa. If the actual name was masculine, lets say Marc, the question will be Marc ne regarde-t-il pas la tl? where IL is the personal pronoun corresponding to Marc. Now, lets see how this works with our magic expression est-ce que . 2- With the expression est-ce que Again, very easy to do when applying est-ce que . Just as above (in affirmative case), place est-ce que BEFORE the negative sentence to change it into a negative-interrogative one. Example: Tu ne parles pas bien franais = You dont speak French well. (Negative form) Est-ce que tu ne parles pas bien franais ? = Dont you speak french well (Negativeinterrogative form). All we did was place est-ce que before the original sentence Tu ne parles pas bien franais. Wasnt that easy? In upcoming lessons we will study Les Mots Interrogatifs (the Interrogative words) Qui (Who), que (What), quoi (What), combien (How much/many), comment (How), o (Where), pourquoi (Why), quand (When). So you will basically be covered when it comes to asking questions in French. Isnt that Frenchtastic? Now, lets practice now what we have just learned.