Most of us at some time have bought a phrase book either while travelling or with the intention to travel. They are often full of questions that have been translated phonetically showing the reader how to ask for directions, the time, how to make a reservation in a restaurant, book a room in a hotel etc.
However successful you may be at asking the question from the phrase book the problem is then to understand what is being said back to you. We will begin by looking at the best way to ask a question and in such a way that we will understand what is being said back to us in return.
There are a number of ways to ask a question in French. What we want is the one that is the most clearly understood. One way is to use the ‘I do/Do I?’ example using the same grammar as English.
When we are making a statement in English about something we are doing we use; I do (or I am doing). When we are asking a question about something we are doing, or are going to do, we simply swap them around; Do I?
We obviously don’t use this system for all verbs. For example, we don’t turn ‘I go’ into a question by saying ‘Go I?’. In French however, we can use this system with most verbs to turn a statement into a question. Not that we always do in reality, but it can be used.
So let’s have a look at some French examples using the verbs from the Big Six.
Tu vas You go or You are going
Vas-tu? Are you going?
Je suis I am.
Suis-je? Am I?
Il a He has
a-t-il? Has he?
Where did the ‘t’ come from in a-t-il? It is just added in to help articulate the phrase. It would sound awkward to say ‘a-il’ as the letter ‘a’ is a vowel as well as the letter ‘i’ in ‘il’. Phonetically it is pronounced as ‘u-til’.
Tu fais You do or You are doing
Fais-tu? (What) are you doing?
Let’s start combining the words we have looked at already to form phrases, questions and most importantly of all, understand why we are saying what we are saying.
Comment tu vas le faire? como tchoo var le fair
How (are) you going to do it?
.
Quand vas-tu aller la-bas? ko var tchoo u-lay lu-bar
When are you going to go over there?
.
Pourquoi as-tu fais ca? pour-kwu u tchoo fay su
Why have you done that/Why did you do that?
(although you are more likely to hear Pourquoi tu as fais ca?)
Something that has not been mentioned until now, but you are probably aware of from the preceding phrases is that French does not use ‘am’, ‘are’ and ‘is’ in the same way as English. They only exist with the verb ‘Etre’ (To be);
Je suis I am
Tu es You are
Il est He is
With the rest of our verbs such as Faire (Do), Aller (Go) etc. we only use the pronouns Je, Tu, Il .... (I, You, He) and the conjugated verb fais/fait (Je fais, Tu fais, Il fait etc.).
As mentioned, in both French and English a simple statement can be turned into a question with the intonation of our voice. The French also have another way of clearly stating what they are saying is a question. Instead of using intonation or swapping verbs and pronouns around such as in the I do/Do I? example, they simply add ‘Qu’est-ce_que’, pronounced ‘kes-ke’ or Est-ce_que’, pronounced ‘Es-ke’ at the beginning of the phrase.
Examples;
Qu’est-ce que tu fais? kes-ke tu fay
What are you doing? – referring to one person
Qu’est-ce que vous faites? kes-ke voo fet
What are you doing ? – referring to two or more people or somebody that we do not know well.
‘Qu’est-ce que’ is roughly translated as ‘what?’ in most circumstances.
Qu’est-ce qu’il va faire demain apres l’ecole? Kes-kil var fair de-mar
What is he going to do tomorrow?
.
To ask ‘Can I?, Can you?’ or ‘Is he/She? we use ‘Est-ce_que’
Examples;
Est-ce que tu peux le faire pour moi cette semaine?
es-ke tchoo pe le fair pour mwar set se-mayn
Can you do it for me this week?
.
Est-ce que je peux faire quelque chose pour toi ?
es-ke zhe pe fair kel-ke-shoyz pour twar
Can I do something for you?
.
Est-ce qu’il est a la maison?
es-kil e u lu may-zon’*
Is he in the house/at home?
.
Est-ce qu’il faut reserver une table?
es-kil for re-zer-vay oon tubl’
Is it necessary to reserve une table?
.
Est-ce que vous avez une chamber ce soir?
es-ke vooz u-vay oon chombr’ say swar
Do you have a room (available) tonight?
.
Est-ce que je dois tourner a gauche?
es-ke zhe dwu tour-nay a goosh
Must I/Do I have to turn left?
.
To understand what is the response to your question there is one golden rule. Tell them that you are not French. This may be stating the obvious, but it is a clear message telling the person helping you to slow down. It also a polite way of saying that you don’t understand the bastardized local dialect. Repeat back numbers and basic directional terms such as left (gauche), right (droite), straight ahead (tout droit) etc. In short, insist on them answering the question in the same way that you have asked the question using similar vocabulary.
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