How French works
We have seen that questions can be asked in French either by making your voice go up at the end of a sentence (this is called rising intonation) or by using est-ce que.
A third way of asking questions involves swapping round the subject (that’s the word like Elle or Pierre that usually comes in front of the verb) and the verb . This is called inversion:
Parlez-vous français?
Do you speak French?
Aimes-tu le tennis?
Do you like tennis?
One important thing to remember is where the subject is il or elle and the verb ends in a vowel , -t- is added. This is to make it sound better:
Parle-t-elle français?
Does she speak French?
Aime-t-il le tennis?
Does he like tennis?
Forming questions using inversion is only used in formal French. Most commonly questions are formed using intonation or est-ce que:
Vous parlez français? / Est-ce que vous parlez français?
Do you speak French?
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