135 - 7 Question Words in French

 
 

In this episode, you'll learn 7 essential question words in French, such as 'why', 'how', etc. 🤔✨

After the lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to practice!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the French Made Easy podcast, where I give you all the basics you need to speak French clearly and confidently. I'm your host, Mathilde, and I'm a French teacher, mumpreneur, and bread and cheese lover. Join me as I dive into all things French for beginners, and deliver to you bite-sized and easy-to-follow lessons every Tuesday. Let's get started, "on commence"!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 135, numéro 135! 

Today, we’re going to learn 7 question words. Questions words like what, where, when, etc. 

If you want to learn more about how to ask questions in French, using the 3 different methods to ask questions in French, which, reminder, are the: ‘est-ce que’ method, the inversion method, and the intonation methods, then go and listen to episodes number 75 and 76 of the French Made Easy podcast. Those are very important episodes to listen to, so if you haven’t listened to them before, then do that now! 

Before we get started, make sure you have your lesson’s cheat sheet in front of you, that will make it much easier for you to understand. After the lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Library, to download your lesson’s exercises. It’s all free! 

I’ll share 7 question words, and I’ll give you examples. And I’ll give you examples for each method, (the est-ce que method, inversion method, and intonation method.)

Another reminder, I feel like I say that all the time when it comes to questions in French, but inversion method is not commonly used in spoken French. It’s mainly in writing, et encore, formal writing. The 2 most used methods are the ‘est-ce que’ method and the intonation method.

Let’s learn our 7 question words, our interrogative words. 

1. Où? (Where?) 

  • Est-ce que method: "Où est-ce qu'il va ?" (Where is he going?)

  • Intonation: "Il va où ?" (Where is he going?)

  • Inversion: "Où va-t-il ?" (Where is he going?)

2. Quand? (When?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Quand est-ce qu'on part ?" (When are we leaving?)

  • Intonation: "On part quand ?" (When are we leaving?)

  • Inversion: "Quand part-on ?" (When are we leaving?)

3. Pourquoi? (Why?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Pourquoi est-ce qu'elle est triste ?" (Why is she sad?)

  • Intonation: "Pourquoi elle est triste ?" (Why is she sad?)

  • Inversion: "Pourquoi est-elle triste ?" (Why is she sad?)

4. Qui? (Who?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Qui est-ce qui va avec toi ?" (Who is going with you?)

  • Intonation: "Qui va avec toi ?" (Who is going with you?)

  • Inversion: "Avec qui vas-tu ? " (With whom are you going?)

5. Comment? (How?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Comment est-ce que vous payez ?" (How are you paying?)

  • Intonation: "Vous payez comment ?" (How are you paying?)

  • Inversion: "Comment payez-vous ?" (How are you paying?)

6. Combien? (How much? / How many?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Combien de personnes est-ce qu'elles invitent ?" (How many people are they inviting?)

  • Intonation: "Elles invitent combien de personnes ?" (How many people are they inviting?)

  • Inversion: "Combien de personnes invitent-elles ?" (How many people are they inviting?)

7. Que? / Quoi? (What?)

  • Est-ce que method: "Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?" (What are you doing?)

  • Intonation: "Tu fais quoi ?" (What are you doing?)

  • Inversion: "Que fais-tu ?" (What are you doing?)


Notes:

There’s a bit more to it, but as a beginner, please remember these 2 things:

1) When ‘que’ is placed at the end of a question, or after a preposition, it changes to ‘quoi.’ Same meaning.

Par exemple:

  • ‘Tu manges quoi? (What are you eating?) and not ‘tu manges que?’

  • ‘Tu penses à quoi?’ (What are you thinking about?) and not ‘tu penses à que?’

2) "Que" becoming "qu'" before a vowel or mute 'h'
Par exemple:

  • Qu'entends-tu? (What do you hear?)

Alright, so quick recap:

  • Où? (Where?)

  • Quand? (When?)**

  • Pourquoi? (Why?)

  • Qui? (Who?)

  • Comment? (How?)

  • Combien? (How much? / How many?)

  • Que? / Quoi? (What?)

 Et voilà! That’s the end of today’s episode! I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for listening. Now it’s time to head over to the French Made Easy library to download your exercises and practice what you’ve learned today!
 I’ll chat with you next week. À bientôt, bye!

Mathilde Kien1 Comment