Learn French : La Phrase Interrogative

When you meet your friend, your cousin or maybe your boyfriend / girlfriend surely you ask a question, for example : How are you ?, or maybe It's long time not to meet you, isn't it ?. A sentence in the question form is very often we used in daily life. Such sentece is called interrogative phrase. In french we called la phrase intterogative.


There are four ways of forming french interrogatives :

• Using question word like : combien (how many / how much), qui (who), quand (when), pourquoi (why), comment (how), Où (where), Quelle (which).
• Add est-ce-que at the beginning of a sentence. 
• Reverting subject and verb. 
• The sentence pronounciation with question mark.

Using question word

• Où est le distributeur automatique ? (Where is the ATM ?).
• Quand est la fete des meres ? (When is mother's day ?).
• Combien d’enfants avez-vous ? (How many children do you have ?).
• Qui sont ces gens ? (Who are these people ?).
• Pourquoi êtes-vous toujours en retard ? (Why are you always late ?).
• Comment allez-vous ? (How are you ?).
• Quelle voiture pour partir en vacances ? (Which car to go on vocation ?).

Using est-ce-que

• Vous habitez à Jakarta (You live in Jakarta).  

         est-que vous habitez à Jakarta ? (Do you live in Jakarta ?)

• Wati aime la peinture  (Wati likes painting).  

         est-que Wati aime la peinture ? (does wati like painting ?). 

If est-ce que precedes a subject that begins with a vowel, it changes to est-ce qu’  as shown by the example below :

• Ils vendent des timbres (They sell stamps).  

         est-qu'ils vendent des timbres ? (Do they sell stamps ?)

• Il joue au football  (He plays football).  

         est-qu'il joue au football ? (Does he play football ?). 

• Elle annule son voyage au Brésil (She cancels her trip to Brazil).  

         est-qu'elle annule son voyage au Brésil? (Does she cancel her trip to Brazil ?). 

Reverting subject and verb

• Tu participes à toutes nos réunion.  (You participate in our meeting).

         Participes-tu à toutes nos réunion ? (Do you participate in our meeting ?).

• Vous habitez à Jakarta (You live in Jakarta).  

         Habitez-vous  à Jakarta ? (Do you live in Jakarta?). 

If the suffix of a verb is a vowel and a subject that begins with a vowel, it must be added consonant t as ilustrated by the example below :

• Elle parle russe (She speaks russian).  

         Parle-t-elle russe? (She speaks russian ?).

• Il souvent voyage en europe (He often travels to Europel).  

         Voyage-t-il souvent en europe? (Does he  often travels to Europel ?). 

The sentence pronounciation with question mark

The easiest way to ask a question, and one that native speakers use all of the time, involves making your voice go up a the end of a declarative sentence. Notice examples below :

• Tu participes à toutes nos réunion.  (You participate in our meeting).

         Tu participes à toutes nos réunion ? (You participate in our meeting ?).

• Vous habitez à Jakarta (You live in Jakarta).  

         Vous habitez à Jakarta  ? (You live in Jakarta ?). 

• Elle parle russe (She speaks russian).  

        Elle parle russe ? (She speaks russian ?).

• Il souvent voyage en europe (He often travels to Europel).  

         Il souvent voyage en europe ? (He often travels to Europel?).