ASKING QUESTIONS

ASKING QUESTIONS Click here to return to the index

There are several ways in which you can ask a question:

1) The easiest way is to take any statement, and raise your voice at the end.

Think about it:

Tu aimes la pizza – You like pizza

But raise your voice at the end, and it now becomes

Tu aimes la pizza? - do you like pizza ?

You didn’t need to try and translate the word do, which is the most common mistake that candidates make. By raising your voice, you’ve now changed the meaning.

However, this way relies on you being able to raise your voice really obviously so that the examiner who is marking your exam knows that you are definitely asking a question. Your intonation – the rise-and-fall of your voice - is really important: if the examiner can’t hear any change in your intonation, then he can’t give you the full 2 marks.

2) Another way is to put est-ce que in front of a sentence. It literally means ‘is it that’… which may not sound like it makes a lot of sense, but when you use it, it’s obvious that you’re asking a question. Let’s look at the previous question:

Tu aimes la pizza? Est-ce que tu aimes la pizza?

Il y a un bon film ? Est-ce qu’il y a un bon film ? (is there a good film ?)

3) You can also invert the verb – what this means is that the verb comes first and the tu/vous (or whatever person) comes second, joined together by a hyphen:

Tu as un travail? As-tu un travail?

Vous avez des sandwichs ? Avez-vous des sandwichs ?

4) Finally, you need to know your question words, both to ask questions and to recognise them.

When asking someone what they like, use qu’est-ce que…

Qu’est-ce que tu aimes (faire)? – what do you like doing ?

When asking what time something happens, use à quelle heure:

Le film commence à quelle heure? Notice that the word order is not the same as in English.

You could also say À quelle heure commence le film?

When asking someone how long something takes, use combien de temps:

Combien de temps dure le film / le voyage? How long does the film / journey last ?