Beginner French Lesson
Beginner French Lesson
How to ask simple questions: formal and informal structures
Informal: Use the normal word order in a sentence with a question mark at the end and use voice intonation to indicate that it is a question. Where there is a question word, it will be placed at the end.
Example 1:
J’ai 30 ans. (I am 30 years old) Question: Tu as quel âge? (How old are you?)
Example 2:
Je viens de Paris. (I come from Paris) Question: Tu viens d’où? (Where do you come from?)
Formal: Start the sentence with the question word and reverse the order of the verb and its subject. A dash is always inserted between the reversed verb-subject in a question.
Example 1:
Informal: Tu as quel âge? Formal: Quel âge as-tu? (How old are you?)
Example 2:
Informal : Tu viens d’où? Formal: D’où viens-tu? (Where do you come from?)
NB: where, as a result of the inversion, two vowels are side by side, you will have to add a “t”. This applies to subjects pronouns: il, elle, ils, elles and on.
Example:
Il a 30 ans. (He is 30 years old) Informal: Il a quel âge? Formal: Quel âge a-t-il?
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