{"id":118095,"date":"2023-09-30T12:01:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T16:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/asking-questions-in-french\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T09:40:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:40:24","slug":"asking-questions-in-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/french\/asking-questions-in-french\/","title":{"rendered":"The Simple Guide to Asking Questions in French"},"content":{"rendered":"

A big part of learning any language is asking questions. <\/strong><\/p>\n

“What exactly is the whole deal with tu<\/em> and vous<\/em><\/a>?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Where can I find some good, reliable French lessons online<\/a>?”<\/p>\n

“What’s\u00a0my CEFR level, and why does it matter?”<\/p>\n

That said, how do we ask those questions… in French?<\/p>\n

Read on to learn all the essentials for asking questions in French!<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The French Question Words<\/h2>\n

At its simplest, asking questions in French<\/a> has to do with using the right word.<\/p>\n

These words are called interrogative words<\/strong>, and they can be broken into three different categories: interrogative pronouns,<\/strong> interrogative adjectives<\/strong> and interrogative adverbs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sound like grammatical garble? Let’s take a closer look.<\/p>\n

Interrogative pronouns: Who\/whom, what and which one<\/h3>\n

There are three\u00a0main interrogative pronouns in French<\/a>, and they are\u00a0qui<\/strong><\/em> (who or whom),\u00a0que <\/em><\/strong>(what) and\u00a0lequel<\/strong><\/em> (which one).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Qui\u00a0<\/em>and que<\/i> are fairly simple to use.<\/p>\n

Primarily,\u00a0qui<\/em>\u00a0is used when the answer is going to be a person, and\u00a0que<\/em> is used when the answer is going to be an\u00a0object or idea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Qui<\/strong> es-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Who are you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Qui<\/strong> parle ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Who is speaking?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Que<\/strong> veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>What do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Que<\/strong> pensez-vous du livre ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>What do you think of the book?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Have you ever seen the phrase\u00a0qu’est-ce que<\/strong><\/em> being used to introduce a question, as in qu’est-ce que c’est<\/strong><\/em> (what is it)? Well, this is the same que <\/em>being used\u00a0<\/em>here, it’s just that in the cases shown above, it’s not\u00a0attached to the question phrase\u00a0est-ce que <\/em><\/strong>(is it that).<\/em> Stay tuned for more on\u00a0est-ce que\u00a0<\/em>later.<\/p>\n

The interrogative pronoun\u00a0lequel<\/em>\u00a0and its variants act a little differently. Instead of simply taking the place of a single noun, this interrogative pronoun takes the place of\u00a0quel<\/em> (which) and a noun. Observe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t
Quel livre veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which book do you want? <\/td>\u2192<\/td> Lequel<\/strong> veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which one do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Sound simple? Not so fast.\u00a0Lequel\u00a0<\/em>must agree with the gender and the number of the noun that it’s replacing. Check out what I mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Quelle\u00a0assiette veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which plate do you want?<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Laquelle<\/strong> veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which one do you want? (because\u00a0assiette<\/em> is a feminine singular noun)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quels livres veux-tu\u00a0? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which books do you want?<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Lesquels<\/strong> veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which ones do you want? (because\u00a0livres<\/em>\u00a0is a masculine plural\u00a0noun)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quelles assiettes veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which plates do you want?<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Lesquelles<\/strong> veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which ones do you want?\u00a0(because\u00a0assiettes<\/em>\u00a0is a feminine plural\u00a0noun)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Interrogative adjectives: Which<\/h3>\n

You know all that work you just did for interrogative pronouns? Well, sit back, weary French learner, because interrogative adjectives are easier.<\/p>\n

They are exactly like\u00a0lequel<\/em> in terms of gender and number agreement, but they don’t merge with a pronoun and they don’t replace the noun.<\/p>\n

These words roughly translate to the English word “which.” Check out these examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Quel<\/strong> livre veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which book do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quelle<\/strong>\u00a0assiette veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which plate do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quels<\/strong> livres veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which books do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quelles<\/strong> assiettes veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Which plates do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Interrogative adverbs: Where, why, when and how many<\/h3>\n

Last but not least, we have the category of question words known as interrogative adverbs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Combien de <\/a>\n <\/em> \u2014 how many (used with counted nouns) \/ how much (used with uncounted nouns)<\/td> Combien de<\/strong> livres veux-tu ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>How many books do you want?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Comment <\/a>\n <\/em> \u2014 how<\/td> Comment<\/strong>\u00a0\u00e7a va ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>How are you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
O\u00f9 <\/a>\n <\/em> \u2014 where<\/td> O\u00f9<\/strong>\u00a0es-tu\u00a0? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Where are you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pourquoi <\/a>\n <\/em> \u2014 why<\/td> Pourquoi<\/strong> veux-tu ce livre ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Why do you want that book?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quand <\/a>\n <\/em> \u2014 when<\/td> Quand<\/strong> vient-il ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>When is he coming?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

How to Form Questions in French<\/h2>\n

Now that we have the words that we need, we need to know how to form our sentences with these words in order to properly ask questions.<\/p>\n

Here are some different ways to ask questions in French.<\/p>\n

Inversion: flipping the noun and verb<\/h3>\n

As you might have noticed, for this whole blog post I’ve used inversion of the noun and verb in order to ask questions. This works both with and without question words, and this is the most formal way<\/a> to ask questions.<\/p>\n

You should use this in almost all writing (except social media, of course), and you should use this method when asking questions to people of importance or people you don’t know. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Vous parlez anglais. <\/a>\n <\/td>You speak English.<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Parlez-vous<\/strong> anglais ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Do you speak English?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vous voulez manger combien de pommes ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>You want to eat how many apples?<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Combien de pommes voulez-vous<\/strong> manger ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>How many apples do you want to eat?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tu as mang\u00e9 une pomme. <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>You ate an apple.<\/td>\u2192<\/td> As-tu<\/strong> mang\u00e9 une pomme ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Did you eat an apple?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

It’s worth noting that inversion happens with auxiliary verbs in cases of a compound verb tense, as in the last example above.<\/p>\n

Also, a\u00a0t<\/em><\/strong> inserts itself during\u00a0inversion when the third person singular is used\u00a0<\/em>and the verb ends in a vowel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t
A-t<\/strong>-il \u00e9cout\u00e9 la radio ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Did he listen to the radio?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Aime-t<\/strong>-elle le livre ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Does she like the book?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Forming questions with est-ce que <\/em>(is it that)<\/h3>\n

While not as formal as inversion, adding est-ce que<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(is it that) to the beginning of a phrase will also transform it into a question.<\/p>\n

To form a question, you simply add this phrase to the beginning of an affirmative, declarative sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Est-ce que<\/strong> tu parles anglais ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Do you speak English?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Est-ce que<\/strong> tu as mang\u00e9 une pomme\u00a0? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Did you eat an apple?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Est-ce qu'<\/strong>elle aime le livre ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Does she like the book?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

In addition, question words can be added before est-ce que <\/em>for questions that are not answered with yes or no:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Qu'est-ce que<\/strong> vous voulez manger ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>What do you want to eat?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pourquoi est-ce qu'<\/strong>elle aime ce livre ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Why does she like that book?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quand est-ce qu'<\/strong>il va venir ? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>When is he going to come?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Est-ce que<\/em> is not as formal as inversion, so it’s not advisable to use it in formal writing, but it can be heard in conversation even if a speaker is talking to someone of importance.<\/p>\n

Intonation and n\u2019est-ce pas<\/em> (isn’t it)<\/h3>\n

The following two methods for asking questions are extremely informal and should only be used in informal situations.<\/p>\n

The first involves simply saying the statement in the declarative form but adding a rising intonation at the end to signal a question. Simply, a declarative statement becomes a question by adding a question mark and\/or raising the tone of your voice at the end.<\/p>\n

The second informal way to ask a question includes adding the phrase n\u2019est-ce pas<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(isn\u2019t it) to the end of the declarative statement.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t
Louis va manger une pomme. <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Louis is going to eat an apple.<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Louis va manger une pomme\u00a0? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Is Louis going to eat an apple?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monique veut lire le livre. <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Monique wants to read the book.<\/td>\u2192<\/td> Monique veut lire le livre, n'est-ce pas<\/strong>\u00a0? <\/a>\n <\/em><\/td>Monique wants to read the book, doesn't she?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

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