Questions - yes / no questions

1 Formation

There are three main ways of forming questions requiring a "yes" or "no" answer:

• rising intonation / ending with a question mark (informal language)  
• using est-ce que  
• inverting the subject and verb (formal language):

2 Rising intonation / ending with a question mark

The easiest way of forming a question in French is to take a normal affirmative statement and do one of two things:

• if you are speaking: raise the intonation towards the end of the sentence
• if you are writing: put a question mark at the end

This is common in informal speech and writing:

Vous connaissez Pierre?

Do you know Pierre?

3 Est-ce que

Another way of forming a question is to take a normal affirmative statement and place est-ce que in front of it. This is used in all forms of language except very formal French:

Est-ce que vous connaissez Pierre?

Do you know Pierre?

4 Inversion

4.1 Pronoun as subject

In written or formal spoken French questions are formed by inversion. In a simple tense , if the subject of the sentence is a personal pronoun (like je or vous) the subject and verb are inverted and linked by a hyphen:

Connaissez-vous Pierre?

Do you know Pierre?

In a compound tense it is the subject and auxiliary that are inverted:

Avez-vous connu Pierre?

Did you know Pierre?

4.2 Insertion of the letter t

The letter t is inserted when the verb ends with a vowel (even if this vowel is not pronounced). For example:

Parle-t-elle souvent de sa mère?

Does she often talk of her mother?

A-t-il eu besoin de quelque chose?

Did he need anything?

4.3 Puis

Puis is used instead of peux in inversion (je form only):

Puis-je me servir?

May I help myself?

4.4 Noun as subject

Where the subject of the sentence is a noun , the sentence is given two subjects, the noun itself, which precedes the verb , and the corresponding subject pronoun which follows the verb:

M. Chirac visite-il souvent cette région?

Does Mr Chirac often visit this region?

Le gouvernement a-t-il pu réduire le taux de chômage? 

Has the government been able to reduce unemployment?

5 Si

Si means yes in answer to a negative question:

Pierre n'est pas là par hasard? - Si, Pierre est là

Pierre isn't here by any chance? - Yes, Pierre is here