How French works
Beginner Unit 19:

Asking questions using intonation and est-ce que

Key points

  • One way of forming a question in French is to make your voice go up at the end of a normal sentence.
  • Another way of forming a question is to begin the sentence with est-ce que.

There are several different ways of asking questions in French. The simplest way, used mostly in spoken French, is to make your voice go up at the end of the sentence . Questions asked like this are often called intonation questions. When they’re written down, they have a question mark at the end:

Vous parlez français?

Do you speak French?

Tu aimes le tennis?

Do you like tennis?

Sometimes this sort of question is used with... n'est-ce pas?

Tu aimes le cricket, n’est-ce pas?

You like cricket, don’t you?

Another way of forming questions is using the phrase est-ce que:

Est-ce que vous parlez français?

Do you speak French?

Est-ce que tu aimes le tennis?

Do you like tennis?

Est-ce que is also used with que to form Qu'est-ce que...? which means What...? :

Qu'est-ce que tu aimes faire à l'école?

What do you like doing at school?

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How French Works was written and coded by Chris Dawson.