French 1 / Unit 5: School and -er Verbs
5.5 Asking Yes/No Questions
Notes
There are three common ways to ask a yes/no question.
- Rising intonation: keep the word order and raise your voice: Tu parles français ?
- Est-ce que: put it before the statement: Est-ce que tu parles français ? Before a vowel it is est-ce qu' : Est-ce qu'elle étudie ?
- Inversion (more formal): Parles-tu français ? Add a -t- between two vowels: Parle-t-il anglais ?
- N'est-ce pas ? at the end means "isn't it? right?": Tu aimes la musique, n'est-ce pas ?
- Answers: oui, non. To contradict a negative question, use si: Tu n'aimes pas les maths ? – Si, j'aime les maths !
Practice
Which is NOT a correct way to ask "Do you study French?"
Est-ce que goes before the whole statement; do not invert after it.
How do you ask "Does he work here?" using inversion?
When a third-person verb ending in a vowel is followed by il, add -t- for easier pronunciation.
« Tu n'aimes pas la physique ? » You do like it. What do you answer?
Si contradicts a negative question and means "yes, I do".
Ready for more? Take the Unit 5 test.