Comment est-ce qu’on forme une question?
Nous avons parlé de trois façons de faire les questions:
1) Par ajouter “est-ce que” (or “est-ce qu’ – avant une voyelle)
Do you dance? – Est-ce que tu danses?
Do they understand? – Est-ce qu’on comprend?
2) L’inversion – changer l’ordre du verbe et du sujet:
Tu danses bien? = Danses–tu bien? (Do you dance well?)
3) Intonation-par changer le ton de la voix – à la fin de la phrase, la voix devient plus haut (raising your voice):
Tu danses? (“danses” would be said with a rising pitch) (Do you dance?)
Pour en lire plus:
How do I ask questions in French? (en anglais)
Forum about est-ce que vs. inversion (from the online dictionary wordreference.com) just as we went over in class, this forum confirms that all three are ways to ask questions, and gives the order of most to least formal:
Most formal – inversion (should be used in writing; it is used in spoken French, but not very often- quite uncommon among friends)
Formal – est-ce que (used often in spoken language)
Less formal – intonation: raising your voice (used in conversation, it is the least formal)
“Faut-il or est-ce qu’il faut: Inversion versus est-ce que” (article from JSTOR that explores this in depth- you will need to login through the school to read the article)
“The frequency of Use of the Interrogative Formula est-ce que“ (article from JSTOR that explores this in depth- you will need to login through the school to read the article)
Inversion quiz – try this teacher-created inversion quiz