3 ways to ask a question in French
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2025
- Do you know how to ask questions in French? Are you confused about how to use the 'est-ce que' structure? In this Q&A-style video, teachers Mark and Pierre-Benoît from Coffee Break French answer learner Pablo's question about asking questions in French! We look at 3 different ways in which we can ask questions in French, and it's up to you to choose which you like using the most.
Here are the phrases included in this video:
• Tu es fatigué ?
• Es-tu fatigué ?
• Est-ce que tu es fatigué ?
• Tu as bien dormi ?
• As-tu bien dormi ?
• Est-ce que tu as bien dormi ?
• Ils ont vu le film ?
• Ont-ils vu le film ?
• Est-ce qu'ils ont vu le film ?
• Elle mange de la glace ?
• Mange-t-elle de la glace ?
Make sure you watch the full video to hear a full explanation about how to use these question phrases correctly. We've provided subtitles in English which can be turned on using the Subtitles/CC button.
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• Coffee Break Q&A - French
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It's a good video! My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!
Thanks for your comment and sharing your brother's story! We'll pass your kind words onto Mark and the rest of the Coffee Break team 😊
I'm a beginner and have been struggling with all the different waysof asking questions. This was made so simple; thank you.
Vâchement bien Pierre-Benoît! Tu nous enseigenes avec beaucoup de sagesse de la langue française!
Merci beaucoup! I can listen to Pierre-Benoit speak French all day.
You're welcome!
I can’t tell you enough how much I’ve listened to CBF in my car & while doing housework, etc… I tell myself, No don’t turn on music, you must listen to another episode, constant repetition. Merci 😊
That's great, we're so pleased to you enjoy our episodes! And that's right, repetition is key 👏
Merci beaucoup monsieur . Très bonne vidéo. Could you do a video on french liaison . When to do it and when not to ?
Oui s'il vous plaît, je voudrais aussi une vidéo sur cette matière!
Salut ! Thank you for watching. You can submit your request for a video topic here: coffeebreakacademy.com/p/questions/
An excellent explanation! ❤
Thank you so much for the great explanations in all your Q&A videos. I had posted some questions, and it would be great if the Coffee Break team could share some answers in future videos.
Thanks Gayathri! The team will be able to see your question if you've submitted it at coffeebreakacademy.com/p/questions/ 😊
@@coffeebreaklanguages I had already submitted my questions a few days back using the above URL.
@@gtri87 We've had hundreds of questions Gayathri - we'll hopefully be able to include yours in a future video 🙂
Love this channel
Thank you very much
You are welcome!
That was Nice 👍
We're so glad that you enjoyed it, Mathew 😊
Of the three options, is there one that is most common, or natural, in spoken conversation?
Salut ! Thank you for your comment. In this situation, 'tu es fatigué ?' is probably the most informal version, followed by 'est-ce que tu es fatigué ?', which is slightly more complex but just as normal in everyday conversation. Finally, 'es-tu fatigué ?' is perhaps the most formal. Having said this, there's no right or wrong way for a certain situation, though it would be appropriate to choose the inversion method ('es-tu') in writing or a more formal situation.
Merci❤
A 4th one from the French Canadians: "T'es-tu fatigué?"
But is there a difference in nuance between the three ways?
Salut ! Thank you for your comment. In this situation, 'tu es fatigué ?' is probably the most informal version, followed by 'est-ce que tu es fatigué ?', which is slightly more complex but just as normal in everyday conversation. Finally, 'es-tu fatigué ?' is perhaps the most formal. Having said this, there's no right or wrong way for a certain situation, though it would be appropriate to choose the inversion method ('es-tu') in writing or a more formal situation.
Merci. Mais si l'on ajoute Pourquoi tu es fatigué? Pourquoi es-tu fatigué? Pourquoi est-ce que tu es fatigué? On peut utiliser tous les trois?
Oui, très bien Roland ! You can add 'pourquoi' to all three question forms just like that.
Actually I thought that putting the question word at the beginning of an intonation question is considered very very informal and grammatically wrong, isn't it? Though "pourquoi", I guess, is also an exception because you shouldn't put it at the end of an intonation question, either, right ("Tu es fatigué pourquoi?" sounds quite odd).
Why would you ever use "est-ce que" when you can just leave it out? I mean, it's so senseless.