French word for question

Understanding questions in French fast is the key to a successful conversation.

In this free French lesson, I’ll explain the 4 ways of asking questions in French and give you lists of common French question words (aka interrogative expressions…)

1 – How To Ask Questions in French?

We have basically 4 ways of asking questions in French:

1. To ask a question in a relaxed, everyday conversation, we just raise our voice.
   Vous parlez français ?
2. To insist on the fact that you’re asking a question, you may use “est-ce que”.
   Est-ce que vous parlez français ?
3. When we write, or in formal situations, we tend to use “inversion”, a French concept where you invert the subject and the verb.
   Parlez-vous français ?
4. When you’re pretty sure the answer is yes, you may use the tag expressions “n’est-ce pas ?” or “non ?”

Now let’s study the different ways of asking questions in French in details.

Questions in French: the Modern “Everyday” Way

This is the most common construction, mostly used in spoken French, and it’s also the simplest – hence it’s popularity.

You just raise your intonation towards the end of the sentence!
Vous parlez français ? = Do you speak French?

If you use an interrogative expression (like when, why, where…) It goes all the way at the end of your sentence.

1. Tu vas en France quand ?
   When are you going to France?
2. Tu voyages avec qui ?
   With whom do you travel?

Questions in French: “Est-ce que”

“Est-ce que” is nowadays mostly used to ask questions that can be answered by “oui” or “non”, and with “qu’est-ce que” (what do you…).

“Est-ce que” is pronounced [S keu] and it takes elision, so when followed by a vowel or an h, it becomes “est-ce qu’il(s)” [S kil], “est-ce qu’elle(s)” [S kel] etc…

“Est-ce que” means nothing by itself (watch out! It doesn’t always translate as ‘is’), it’s like the inverted question mark Spanish uses before the question: it warns you that a question is coming

1. Est-ce que tu vas souvent à Londres ?
   Do you often go to London?
2. Est-ce que tu peux venir chez moi ?
   Can you come to my house?
3. Est-ce qu’elle est française ?
   Is she French?
4. Qu’est-ce que tu fais ?
   What are you doing?

Questions in French: Inversion

Inversion is the most formal way of asking a question in French yet it’s still very much used, especially when using an interrogative expression.

In inversion, you pretty much invert the subject verb order, placing the verb first.
Pourquoi vas-tu à Paris ? = Why are you going to Paris?
Avec qui voyagez-vous ? = With whom are you traveling?

If you are studying French to pass exams, it is essential you know how to form your questions using inversion.

However, if you are learning French to communicate, you should be able to understand a question asked using inversion, but I wouldn’t worry about using it right away.

The modern everyday way to ask questions is much easier, if you ask me!

There is more to say about asking question with inversion since the construct can be quite complex.

Inversion, the various French question words etc.. are explained in depth and then illustrated by a level-adapted ongoing novel with audio – in my intermediate level French audiobook method – À Moi Paris L3.

Questions in French: N’est-ce pas?

Grammar makes it a question, so I have to list it here. But it’s only used as a tag question, when you are almost sure the answer is “yes”.
Tu es français, n’est-ce pas ? = You are French, right /aren’t you?

Instead of using “n’est-ce pas ?”, you could also just ask no in French: non ?

Vous aimez la France, non ? = You like France, don’t you?

And now let’s see what question words are used to ask specific informations.

2 – French Question Words

Interrogative expressions – or interrogative adverbs, and sometimes interrogative adjectives – are French question words used to ask for a particular piece of information.

They combine with prepositions to form more complex French questions and this is usually the part that holds students of French back when asking a question.

You can gain a lot of speed (and therefore confidence) by knowing these French question words by heart!

Most Common French Interrogative Expressions

You probably already know these French question words:

1. Comment = how
2. Où = where
3. Quand = when
4. Pourquoi = why – Note: to answer, use: parce que (parce qu’il-s, parce qu’elle-s)
5. Combien = how many (de + noun)
6. Qui = who, whom
7. À quelle heure = at what time

Interrogative Expressions Combined with Prepositions

Basic French question words combine with prepositions (from, of, about, to, until, for…) to create more complex interrogative expressions.

Some usually confuse students, so make sure you understand these constructs.

I am going to list the most common ones below, but there are more.

1. Jusqu’où = up to where, how far
2. D’où = from where
3. Jusqu’à quand = until when
4. Depuis quand = since when
5. Pour quand = for when
6. Jusqu’à quelle heure = until what time
7. Depuis quelle heure = since what time
8. Pour quelle heure = for what time
9. Pour combien de = for how much/many
10. Avec combien de = with how much/many
11. Combien de temps = how long
12. Pendant combien de temps = for how long
13. Depuis combien de temps = since how long
14. Que or qu’ = what + verb… as in what are you doing ? Que fais-tu, qu’est-ce que tu fais ?
15. quoi = what (used mostly in Street French: tu fais quoi ? = What are you doing?)
16. À quoi = usually used with a verb that is followed by à = penser à = À quoi tu penses ?
17. De quoi = usually used with a verb that is followed by de = parler de = De quoi tu parles ?
18. Avec quoi = with what
19. Avec qui = with whom
20. De qui =of, from, about whom
21. À qui = to whom
22. Pour qui = for whom
23. Chez qui = at whose place
24. Quel = which/what + masculine singular noun
25. quels = which/what + masculine plural noun
26. quelle = = which/what + feminine singular noun
27. quelles = which/what + feminine plural noun
    all pronounced “kel”
28. Pour quel = for which
29. Avec quel = with which
30. Chez quell (ami) = At which (friend’s) place
31. De quel = of which / about which
32. À quel = at which / in which
33. Dans quel = in which / inside which

3 – Watch Out for Prepositions!

In spoken English, it is common to put a preposition at the end of the sentence. Example: Who does she work for?

It is not so in French: you HAVE TO group the preposition with the interrogative expression, in other
words, the preposition becomes part of your interrogative expression.

1. Elle travaille pour qui ?
2. Pour qui est-ce qu’elle travaille ?
3. Pour qui travaille-t-elle ?

You can never say in French: “qui elle travaille pour ?”.

4 – The Secrets to a Successful French Conversation

Asking questions fast, and being able to understand them fast as well, is an essential part of French conversation. Most students can’t answer questions fast enough because they are surprised by the word order used in French to ask a question.

You expected: “comment vous appelez-vous ? ” – which is featured in so many learning method to ask “what’s your name”, but is rather formal – and were asked “vous vous appelez comment ?” – same question, but asked in a much more casual way, or “c’est quoi votre nom ?” even more casual.

And that’s were you freeze in “surprise”. You expected one variation and got another one, which you often try to translate word by word. That’s the mistake: in most situations, you don’t need to translate the question. You need to understand it’s a question, and grab the essential parts to be able to, within the context of that particular conversation, guess the rest and answer fast.

So I dedicated a whole audiobook to this subject: secrets of French conversation. 1 hour of audio, plenty of exercises switching between the different ways of asking questions and everything you could possibly want to know about asking questions in French!

I hope this lesson helps. If you’d like to stay informed of new free lesson release, please subscribe to my newsletter.

Much like English, French often makes it clear that a question is being asked by beginning the sentences with a «question word» like Que («what»), or by using a word order that is not standard for direct statements.

These are the question words, or interrogatives:

Qui? = Who?
Que?/Quoi? = What?
Quand? = When?
Où? = Where?
Pourquoi? = Why?
Comment? = How?
Combien? = How many?/ How much?
Quel/ Quelle/ Quels/ Quelles? = Which?

These words are so important to memorize!! You really can’t have a conversation without them, can you?

Notice that Quel/ Quelle/ Quels/ Quelles (Which) agree in gender and number with the noun(s) they are asking about.

Examples:

Quelle fleur tu veux? (Which flower do you want?)
Quel chien tu préfères? (Which dog do you prefer?)

French does not use any auxiliary verb (such as «do») to form questions — the exact same word forms are used in sentences, just the word order is different when forming a question.

In French, it is possible to make a question without using a question word:

*As in English, by raising your tone at the end, without changing the words in anyway.
Il est professeur? (He’s a teacher?)
*Using «est-ce que…»
Est-ce qu’il est professeur? (He’s a teacher?)
*Using the subject-verb inversion.
Est-il professeur? (Is he a teacher?)

With the question words, there are three manners to make a question depending on the register you want to use:

Reading time:  6 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Questions are an essential part of any conversation, and being able to properly formulate a question in French is an extremely important part of your learning. Especially if you are naturally curious, asking questions in French is something you should want to learn more. In this article, we will look into the different ways that you can ask your questions using the French language.

There are five ways in which questions are phrased in French. These are the following:

1. By turning a statement into a question
2. By using est-ce que
3. By changing the order of the words in the sentence
4. By using n’est-ce pas or non; and
5. By using question words

Get your free copy of The Most Common Questions in French

I. TURNING A STATEMENT INTO A QUESTION

The easiest way to ask a question in French is simply to take any statement and make it a question by changing the pitch of your voice. In writing, this can be done by adding a question mark at the end of the sentence. This type of asking questions is deemed informal but is still widely acceptable in regular, everyday type of conversations. This method of asking questions is also commonly used in English, and like in French, the expected reply is either a yes or a no. For example, “You are a dancer?” “She told you I’m not interested?” “You saw the movie?” All of which are regular statements-turned-questions. Some examples in French: 

• Il est arrivé. — He arrived.
• Il est arrivé?   — He arrived?
• C’est vrai. —  That’s true.
• C’est vrai?  —  Is that true?
• Vous aimez la France. —  You like France.
•  Vous aimez la France?   —  Do you like France?

II. USING EST-CE QUE

Another simple way to ask a question in French is to add est-ce que in the beginning of a sentence. Est-ce que literally means “is it that” in English, and is inserted before a regular statement to turn it into a question. The rest of the sentence structure stays the same.

For example:

• Tu connais Ingrid.  — You know Ingrid.
• Est-ce que tu connais Ingrid?  — Do you know Ingrid?
• Est-ce  qu’il est arrivé? — Has he arrived?

Extra tip in using est-ce que:

You can put any question words right before it in a sentence to further create an even more specific question (not just a yes or no question).

Here is the structure:

Question word + est-ce que + regular statement.

More details and examples will be given on this when we discuss the question words later.

III. CHANGING THE ORDER OF THE WORDS TO FORM A QUESTION (INVERSION)

Inversion, or changing up the structure of a sentence, is the more formal way of asking questions in French. Normally, the subject is followed by the verb, but for the inverted questions, the verb is placed before the subject and then joined by a hyphen.

For example: 

• Vous aimez la France.        You like France.
• Kindly note that in this sentence, the subject precedes the verb.
• Aimez-vous la France?       Do you like France?

The subject and verb switch places and are linked by the hyphen.

• Just like in using est-ce que, you can also add a question word before the inverted question to further specify your query.
• In cases where the tenses consist of two or more words, the part of the verb which comes from avoir or être is the one to be used in the inversion and placed before the pronoun.

Example:

As-tu vu mon sac?                          Have you seen my bag?

Est-elle restée longtemps?          Did she stay long?

• For verbs that end with a vowel, when used beside the pronoun il or elle, t is inserted between the verb and pronoun, making it easier to say.

Example: Aime-t-il les chiens? (Does he like dogs?)

IV.  USING N’EST-CE PAS PAS  OR NON

In cases where you are very sure that the person you are talking to will agree with you, you can add ne c’est pas at the end of the sentence. It is just similar to the English usage of “isn’t it?” or “right?” at the end of a question.

Non works the same way. It literally means “no?” and is also added at the end of the sentence. Hein is also similar. It is used just like “eh?” in English, and is often used in informal conversations.

Some examples: 

Vous aimez la France, n’est-ce pas?         You like France, don’t you?

Il est arrivé, n’est-ce pas?                          He arrived, didn’t he?

Vous aimez la France, non?                       You like France, right?

Vous aimez la France, hein?                      You like France, eh?

V. USING QUESTION WORDS

The fifth and last method of asking questions is to use interrogative words. The question words may be placed in the beginning or at the end of the sentence. It can also appear right before est-ce que, or before the inverted subject and verb.

Examples: When did you arrive?

Quand est-ce que tu es arrivé?

Quand es-tu arrivé?

Quand t’es arrivé?

T’es arrivé quand? 

Here is a list of  the most commonly used question words in French.

A/ Combien

• combien + verb?                how much?, how many?
• combien de + noun?        how much?, how many? 

Examples:

combien coûte cet ordinateur?                 How much does this computer cost?

C’est combien, ce pantalon?                      How much are these trousers?

Tu en veux combien?                                 How many do you want?

Combien de personnes vas-tu inviter?      How many people are you going to invite?

B/ Comment?  (  How? )

Examples:

Comment allez-vous? or comment vas-tu?           How are you?

Comment tu t’appelles?                                            What is your name?

C/ Où? Where?

Some French learners often confuse ou (no accent) and où (with accent). The first one means ‘or’ while the second means ‘where’.

Example:
Où allez-vous? (where are you going?)

D/ Pourquoi? Why?

Example:
Pourquoi est-ce qu’il ne vient pas avec nous? Why isn’t he coming with us?

E/ Quand? When?

Example:
Quand est-ce que tu pars en vacances? When are you going on holiday?

F/ Qui? Que? and Quoi? 

These are pronouns which could mean who, whom, what and whose depending on how you use them: to refer to a person or thing, the subject or object, or if it follows a preposition. This is by far the most complicated of all question words, and it would be advisable if you could learn pronouns as well to get a better grasp of this topic.

Here are the basic rules:

1. Qui – can be used when talking about people, and is similar to “who” (subject) or “whom” (object) in English.

Who? Whom?	Referring to people	Meaning	Examples	Meaning
Subject	qui? qui est-ce qui?	Who?	Qui vient? Qui est-ce qui vient?	Who’s coming?
Object	qui? qui est-ce que?	who? whom?	Qui vois-tu? Qui est-ce que tu vois?	Who/Whom can you see?
After preposition	qui? qui est-ce que?	who? whom?	De qui est-ce qu’il parle? Pour qui est ce livre? À qui avez-vous écrit?	Who’s he talking about? Who’s this book for? Who did you write to?, To whom did you write?

Table source: Collins Easy Learning French Grammar

2. À qui is used to mean “whose?” Example:  À qui est ce sac? (Whose is this bag?)

3. Que and quoi are used when talking about things and could mean “what?” The difference is, you use quoi when it follows a preposition.

What	Referring to things	Meaning	Examples	Meaning
Subject	qu’est-ce qui?	what	Qu’est-ce qui se passe? Qu’est-ce qui t’inquiète?	What’s happening? What’s worrying you?
Object	qu’est-ce que?	what	Qu’est-ce que vous faites? Que faites-vous?	What are you doing?
After preposition	quoi?	what	À quoi penses-tu? De quoi parlez-vous	What are you thinking about? What are you talking about?

Table source: Collins Easy Learning French Grammar

4.Quel, quels, quelle, or quelles?

Quel can mean who? Which? Or what? It can be used together with a noun, or as a noun substitute (pronoun). On the other hand, que and quoi can never be used together with a noun. 

The forms of quel are the following:

quel (masculine singular)

quels (masculine plural)

quelle (feminine singular)

quelles (feminine plural)

Examples:

Quel est ton chanteur préféré?	Who’s your favorite singer?
Quel vin recommandez-vous?	Which wine do you recommend?
Quelle est ta couleur préféré?	What’s your favorite color?
Quelle heure est-il?	What time is it?
Quels sont tes chanteurs préférées?	Who are your favorite singers?
Vous jouez de quels instruments?	What instruments do you play?
Quelles sont tes couleurs préférées?	What are your favorite colors?
Quelles chaussures te plaisent le plus?	Which shoes do you like best?

Examples source: Collins Easy Learning French Grammar  

G/ lequel? laquelle? lesquels? and lesquelles? 

Lequel is used to mean “which one?”and here are its different forms:

lequel (masculine singular)          which one?

lequels (masculine plural)             which one?

laquelle (feminine singular)         which ones?

lesquelles (feminine plural)          which ones?

Example:

Laquelle de ces valises est à Fred?  Which of these cases is Fred’s?

Now that you have this guide, you’ll know how to ask questions in French. If you need clarification on this topic, do not hesitate to contact us in the comment section.

P.S. You would be doing me a HUGE FAVOR by sharing it via Twitter or Facebook.

If you want to learn to speak French, it’s important to master the French question words.

After all, when you’re learning a new language, you need to be able to ask questions – otherwise, you could end up lost in Paris, unsure where the bathroom is, unable to order a sandwich, and to make matters worse, a pretty boring conversationalist. That’s no way to live!

Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place. This guide covers it all, from the major question words to how to form a question to how to announce that you have a question in French.

Ready? Let’s get started.

The 12 Primary French Question Words

Question words are the words like “why” and “where” that can turn a sentence into a question. They’re interrogative pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives, and usually show up at the beginning of a question. The good news is, French has essentially the same question words as English, in terms of concepts, so it’s mostly a question (no pun intended) of learning the direct translations.

The major French question words are:

● Qui (who*)

● Que (what*)

● Quoi (what)

● Où (where)

● Quand (when)

● Pourquoi (why)

● Comment (how)

● Combien (how much/how many)

● Quel/quels/quelle/quelles (who/which)

● Lequel/laquelle/lesquels/lesquelles (which one(s))

● À qui (whose)

● À quoi (of what)

Worth noting: While qui is often translated as “who,” it’s actually a little more complicated than that, because qui and que are both something called relative pronouns. You can get into the nitty-gritty of qui versus que, but for the purposes of this guide, we’ll be focusing on their use when acting as question words, where they typically translate to “who” and “what,” respectively.

How to say “I have a question” in French

Before we start asking questions, here’s how you announce that you have one, just in case the need arises. It’s simple to say “I have a question” in French:

“J’ai une question.”

J’ai – I have
une – a (féminin)
question – question

Easy, right?

French Question Words Explained

Qui (who)

Pronunciation: Ki (like “key”)

When it comes to putting questions together, qui is what’s called an interrogative pronoun meaning who or whom. It can also be used to follow the prepositions avec, pour, à, and de in a question.

Qui sera là ? – Who will be there?

Avec qui va-t-il à Paris ? – Who is he going to Paris with?

By the way: if you need a little help mastering your pronunciation, you can check out our French pronunciation tips from one of our French experts.

Que (what)

Pronunciation: Keuh (“euh” like the u in “murder” if you stopped before the r)

Que is another interrogative pronoun, but instead of standing in (typically) for a person, it stands in for an object. We use it just like we use “what” in English. It’s also used to mean “what” in the common interrogative phrase qu’est que (and similar question forms), which we’ll cover in the next section.

Worth noting: While the other French question words don’t contract, que always contracts to qu’ when paired with a word that starts with a vowel. For that reason, with certain verbs, it simply sounds more natural to use qu’est-ce que rather than que on its own. Qu’est-ce que is also much less formal than the inversion, no matter what letter the verb starts with, so it’s often preferable!

Que fais-tu ? – What are you doing?

Qu’est-ce que c’est ? – What is it?

Qu’est-ce qu’il écrit ? – What is he writing?

Quoi (what)

Pronunciation: Kwah

Quoi is basically a form of que – it means “what” – but it’s used after a preposition or when put at the end of a sentence to ask a casual question. When used as an interrogative pronoun, que usually appears at the beginning of questions, while quoi is usually used anywhere else in the sentence (except in slangy phrases like quoi de neuf?).

C’est quoi ? – What is it?

À quoi penses-tu ? – What are you thinking about? (formal)

Tu penses à quoi ? – What are you thinking about? (informal)

Quoi de neuf ? – What’s new?

Où (where)

Pronunciation: Ooh

Où is, simply enough, the French word for “where”, indicating place. You can use it at the beginning or the end of a question. It can also be used outside of questions to simply say “where,” as in, “the street where I live” – la rue où j’habite.

Où est ta voiture ? – Where is your car?

Où est-ce qu’ils mangent ? – Where do they eat?

Le restaurant se trouve où ? – Where is the restaurant? (formal)

Il est où le restaurant ? – Where is the restaurant? (informal)

Quand (when)

Pronunciation: Kahn (just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Quand is used to say “when” in French. It can be used, like où, to form a question or to say the word “when” in a sentence. As with all other question words, it can be (and frequently is) paired with est-ce que.

Quand partez-vous ? – When do you (all) leave?

Quand est-ce qu’elle arrive ? – When does she arrive?

Pourquoi (why)

Pronunciation: Poor-kwah (por as in “to pour water”)

Pourquoi is the French word for why, used to ask about cause or reason. Outside of a question, it also means “why,” as in, “tell me why you came here” – dis-moi pourquoi tu es venu ici.

Pourquoi as-tu apporté un parapluie ? – Why did you bring an umbrella?

Pourquoi est-ce qu’elle rit ? – Why is she laughing?

Comment (how)

Pronunciation: Kum-ahn (“um” as in “umbrella,” “ahn” just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Comment is French for “how”, meaning it can ask about method and means or status – for example, “how is the baby?” (status), or “how did the cow end up on the roof?” (method/means).

Comment ça va ? – How are you?

Comment est-ce que cette pizza est arrivée ici ? – How did this pizza get here?

Combien (how much/how many)

Pronunciation: Com-bee-en (“com” as in “communicate”, “en” as in “enter,” but just barely saying the n, stopping your tongue before it hits the roof of your mouth)

Combien is used in French to ask both “how much” and “how many”. Importantly, when combien is used before a noun, it is always paired with de.

Combien coûte la jupe ? – How much does the skirt cost?

Combien de personnes viennent ? – How many people are coming?

Quel/quels/quelle/quelles (who/which)

Pronunciation: Kell

When we want to ask which of something, broadly, we use quel. This breaks down as quel form masculine singular nouns, quels for masculine plural (or plural mixed gender) nouns, quelle for feminine singular nouns, and quelles for feminine plural nouns. This is different from lequel and laquelle in that it’s less specific/immediate – lequel is used to look at a group of something and say “which one (of these)”, while quel is “which” more broadly.

Quelles chaussettes aimez-vous ? – Which socks do you like?

Tu as acheté quel chapeau ? – Which hat did you buy?

Quels fromages est-ce que vous aimez ? – Which cheeses do you (all) like?

Lequel, laquelle (which one)

Pronunciation: Leuh-kell, lah-kell

Lequel and laquelle also mean which, but, as described above, they specifically ask “Which one?” Similarly, lesquels and lesquelles are the plurals, meaning “Which ones?” These words can also refer back to something previously mentioned, as in “Here are our pastries. Which one do you want?” – Voici nos pâtisseries. Tu veux lesquelles?

Lequel est votre sac à main ? – Which one is your purse?

Laquelle de ces chansons aimes-tu ? – Which of these songs do you like?

À qui (whose) and à quoi (of what)

Pronunciation: Ah ki (key), ah kwah

Lastly, we have à qui and à quoi. Now that you know what qui and quoi are, this should be pretty easy. À is a preposition that can, depending on context, mean to, in, at, with, by, upon, or of, so à qui means “whose” or “to whom” and à quoi means, loosely, “of what”. While “to whom” and “of what” sound pretty formal in English, in French, these are pretty common phrases and not nearly as stiff sounding.

À qui est ce manteau ? – Whose coat is this?

À qui écris-tu ? – To whom are you writing?

À quoi penses-tu ? – What are you thinking?

Il s’attend à quoi ? – What is he expecting?

Done with questions?

Get some answers with Busuu’s bite-sized French lessons designed by language-learning experts.

Forming a question in French

Now that we know the words, let’s take a closer look at how we use them, and other ways to ask questions. After all, there are several different ways to pose a question in French.

Est-ce que

One of the clearest ways to ask a question in French is to add est-ce que (pronounced like “ess keuh”) onto your question word. A lot of learners find this tricky because it doesn’t really translate into English. Literally, it means “is it that…”, but functionally what it does is turn a sentence into a question for you in a more casual, natural way (versus the slightly more formal inversion, which we’ll look at next). That means, to form a question with est-ce que, you can add a question word plus est-ce que to the start of a sentence – or simply use est-ce que as a question word on its own.

For example:

Est-ce que tu as acheté du pain ?

Literally translated: Is it that you bought bread?

Functionally translated: Did you buy bread?

Où est-ce qu’il travaille?

Literally translated: Where is it that he works?

Functionally translated: Where does he work?

Notice that, with the addition of est-ce que, instead of saying, for example, as-tu acheté du pain?, with the inversion, we can simply say tu as acheté du pain.

The good news is that, while it might be confusing to think about, once you see it in action and get a feel for it, it’s really fairly simple to start using est-ce que in French conversation.

Here are all the variations of questions formed with est-ce que, with their meanings and examples.

Inversion

This is the most formal way to ask a question in French. It’s done simply starting with a question word, then inverting the word order you’d typically use to form a sentence. It works just like the most common way to ask English questions, so it should be pretty easy for English speakers to master.

Qui est ton professeur ? – Who is your teacher?

Ma professeure est Maria. – My teacher is Maria.

Où est Jacques ? – Where is Jacques?

Jacques est ici. – Jacques is here.

Que manges-tu ? – What are you eating?

Je mange une pomme. – I’m eating an apple.

Comment est-il venu ? – How did he come?

Il est venu en avion. – He came by plane.

Worth noting: While inversion is certainly in use in the French language, depending on context and what you’re trying to say, it can sound a little stiff. As with many things in French, if something feels awkward to say, it might be worth rephrasing – but this is nonetheless a useful form to know when learning to pose questions.

Question word at the end

A more casual way to form a question that’s common in day-to-day French speech is adding your question word at the end of your sentence/question. Essentially, where the object or answer to the question would go, you simply pop in the question word instead.

Here are a few examples:

Tu penses à quoi ?
What are you thinking about?

L’école est où ?
Where is the school?

And an exception: This structure can’t be used with qui and quoi, instead we say c’est qui and c’est quoi. For example:

C’est quoi ça ?
What is that?

C’est qui ton acteur préféré ?
Who’s your favorite actor?

Question mark only (intonation)

Lastly, just like in casual English, you can ask a question in French simply with your tone (or a question mark, in writing). This is primarily for casual conversation and dialogue, but it’s an easy way to pose a question naturally and informally.

J’ai dit ça ? – I said that?

Tu rentres chez toi ? – You’re going home?

Il a mangé un lama ?! – He ate a llama?!

Now you know the French question words

But practice makes perfect!