How to ask a question in French

Comment est-ce qu'on pose une question en français ?

If you didn’t already know it, that’s French for ‘How do you ask a question in French?'

There are a few different ways to ask a question in French, and some are quite different from what you might be familiar with.

If you’re asking a question with a simple oui or non answer, there are a few different ways to do this.

The easiest way to ask a yes/no question is to pose the question as though it were a statement. This means keeping the same word order and structure of a statement, but - if you are speaking the question - adding a rising intonation to indicate that you are in fact asking a question.

Vous avez de la monnaie ? - You have any change?

Tu as aimé le film ? - You liked the film?

These same questions can be phrased differently using two more methods. The first one involves adding the question phrase Est-ce que at the beginning of the sentence and maintaining the word order, while the other one is to use inversion, which means rearranging the sentence order to put the verb first.

Est-ce que vous avez de la monnaie ? - Do you have any change?

Avez-vous de la monnaie ? - Have you any change?

Est-ce que tu as aimé le film ? - Did you like the movie?

As-tu aimé le film ? Did you like the movie?

Note that when the verb precedes the pronoun in an inverted question, we always use a hyphen. Vous avez becomes ‘avez-vous’, and so on.

If your question is open-ended, and requires an answer that isn’t a simple ‘oui’ or ‘non’, you will want to use a question word:

Quand - when

Où - where

Comment - how

Combien - how much

Pourquoi - why

Qui - who

Quel(le) - which, what

Que - what

Examples:

Quand pars-tu en vacances ? When are you going on holiday?

Où se trouvent les toilettes ? - Where is the bathroom?

Comment vas-tu ? How are you?

Combien de temps as-tu mis ? - How much time did it take you?

Pourquoi n'apprends-tu pas le français ? - Why don’t you learn French?

Qui a mangé la pomme ? - Who ate the apple?

Quelle est la capitale du Mali ? - What is the capital of Mali?

Que fais-tu ? What are you doing?

For more on how to ask questions in French, please see lessons 16 and 17 of the Complete French Course. Lesson 16 is completely free, so you can check it out even if you do not currently have a subscription.