A1 · Questions and negation
Asking with est-ce que
A fixed phrase in front, doing the job English gives to «do».
At a glance
- Remember
- est-ce que is the French «do»: bolt it on and change nothing.
- Form
- Tu viens ?intonation, informal
- Signal words
- est-ce que
- où
- quand
- comment
- Trap
- Wrong:Vient Pierre demain ?Right:Est-ce que Pierre vient demain ?
Your turn
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The form
The forms and what they mean
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French.
question marker
| intonation, informal | Tu viens ? |
| neutral, always correct | Est-ce que tu viens ? |
| formal, written | Viens-tu ? |
| before a vowel: qu’ | Est-ce qu’il vient ? |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
est-ce que goes in front of the whole sentence, which stays as it is.
Est-ce que vous parlez allemand ?Do you speak German?
Before a vowel que becomes qu’.
Est-ce qu’elle est là ?Is she there?
With a question word, est-ce que follows it.
Où est-ce que tu habites ?Where do you live?
French puts a space before the question mark.
Tu viens ?Are you coming?
Example sentences
Est-ce que tu as le temps demain ?Do you have time tomorrow?
Est-ce qu’il y a une pharmacie près d’ici ?Is there a chemist near here?
Quand est-ce que le train part ?When does the train leave?
Vous venez avec nous ?Are you coming with us?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English fronts an auxiliary to ask — «Does Pierre come tomorrow?» — and French can front a verb too, but only with a pronoun and only with a hyphen: Viens-tu ? With a noun it is not possible at all: Vient Pierre ? is wrong. Whenever the subject is a name or a noun and you are not sure, est-ce que makes the question correct without touching anything else.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
A yes-or-no question can be asked in three ways. The simplest is intonation: Tu viens ? — the sentence is left exactly as it is and the voice rises. English can only do this in a limited way («You're coming?» sounds surprised); in French it is ordinary.
The second puts est-ce que in front: Est-ce que tu viens ? Nothing else changes. This is the safe one, and the useful way to think of it is as the French «do»: a meaningless block bolted onto the front so that the rest of the sentence can stay the way it was. It is literally «is it that», but taking it apart does not help — learn it as one word, the way «do you» is one gesture rather than a verb with a meaning.
The third swaps verb and pronoun. It comes further down, because it is the most formal and has rules of its own.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: être · avoir · venir · parler · habiter