Question Form

1. Est-ce que
Est-ce que, literally "is it that," can be placed at the beginning of any affirmative sentence to turn it into a question:

Est-ce que vous dansez ?
Do you dance?

Est-ce que tu veux voir un film ?
Do you want to see a movie?

Est-ce qu'il est arrivé ?
Has he arrived?

Place any question words in front of est-ce que:

Quand est-ce que tu veux partir ?
When do you want to leave?

Pourquoi est-ce qu'il a menti ?
Why did he lie?

Quel livre est-ce que vous cherchez ?
Which book are you looking for?


2. Inversion
A more formal way to ask questions is with inversion: invert the conjugated verb and subject pronoun and join them with a hyphen:

Dansez-vous ?
Do you dance?

Veux-tu voir un film ?
Do you want to see a movie?

Est-il arrivé ?
Has he arrived?

Again, place any interrogative words at the beginning of the question:

Quand veux-tu partir ?
When do you want to leave?

Pourquoi a-t-il menti ?
Why did he lie?

Quel livre cherchez-vous ?
Which book are you looking for?

You can use inversion to ask negative questions

Ne dansez-vous pas ?
Don't you dance?

N'est-il pas encore arrivé ?
Hasn't he arrived yet?


3. Statement as question
A very simple but informal way to ask yes/no questions is to raise the pitch of your voice while pronouncing any sentence:

Vous dansez ?
You dance?

Tu veux voir un film ?
You want to see a movie?

Il est arrivé ?
He arrived?

You can also use this structure to ask negative questions:

Tu ne danses pas ?
You don't dance?

Il n'est pas encore arrivé ?
He hasn't arrived yet?


4. N'est-ce pas ?
If you're pretty sure the answer to your question is yes, you can just make an affirmative statement and then add the tag n'est-ce pas ? to the end. This is also informal:

Tu danses, n'est-ce pas ?
You dance, right?

Tu veux voir un film, n'est-ce pas ?
You want to see a movie, right?

Il est arrivé, n'est-ce pas ?
He arrived, right?


This doesn't seem too hard...