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Contents
Module 2: The Classroom - La Salle de Classe Leçons de vocabulaire
What’s There In The Classroom – Les Objets De la Classe School Subjects – Les Cours Que Je Suis Describing My Courses and Teachers– Mes Cours et Mes Professeurs What’s the Date Today? Les Jours, Les Mois et Les Dates How to Tell the Time? Quelle heure est-il ?
Leçons de grammaire
Saying What There Is – Il y a… The Interrogative Form (Intro) – Comment Poser Des Questions Introducing the Verb "Avoir" – L’Auxiliaire AVOIR (Intro)
Leçon(s) de conjugaison
L’Auxiliaire AVOIR in the present – Conjugating the auxiliary verb AVOIR (to have)
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The Interrogative Form (Intro) – Comment Poser Des Questions WHY IT MATTERS:
Information, information, information. It’s that simple. Asking questions allows you to gather information. If you want to make good conversations in French and make friends, eventually, you need to be able to ask people questions and answer a few yourself. There’s no way around this fact. In this lesson, we will cover a basic interrogative form, also called yes/no question or global question.
How to form yes / no Questions in French?
Take a look at these:
Is Mark sick today? Yes, he is OR No, he isn’t.
Will she arrive tonight? Yes, she will OR No, she won’t.
Just like in English, yes/no questions in French are questions you can answer with a simple OUI (to confirm the action/event described by the verb is true) or with a “NON”, (to deny that the action/event described by the verb isn’t true). You can form yes/no questions in French in three ways. 1. In a casual context or in spoken French, you can ask a yes/no question by simply raising the pitch of your voice. Except for the rise of intonation at the end of your question (and the
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question mark when written), there’s no real difference between this method of constructing questions and a normal statement. The order of words remains the same. For example:
Il va à l’école. He goes to school / He is going to school. (statement)
- Il va à l’école? He goes to school?/ Is he going to school? (question) -
Non, il est malade. No, he is sick.
2. Yes/no questions can also be formed by placing “est-ce que”at the start of every statement in both conversational and formal (written) situations. For example:
Est-ce que tu vas au marché? Do you go to the market?
Est-ce que vous parlez trois langues? Do you speak three languages?
3. In a formal setting, mainly in writing, you make yes/no questions in French by the method of inversion. Practically, you achieve this by placing the subject pronoun after the verb, then joining the two with a hyphen. Examples:
Mangez-vous ici souvent? Do you eat here often?
Veut-elle une autre clé? Does she want another key?
Sont-ils adultes? Are they adults?
R EMEMBER THIS: 1. est-ce que changes into est-ce qu’ when it precedes a vowel or silent h est-ce qu’Alex est malade ? Is Alex ill? 2. If the 3rd person singular form of a verb ends in a vowel, you must add –t– between the verb form and the inverted subject pronoun il/elle/on A-t-il deux dollars? Does he have two dollars? Joue-t-elle au football? Does she play soccer? 3. In an inverted question, a noun remains before the verb and the matching subject pronoun is added after the verb. Alex est-elle étudiante? Is Alex a student?| Ces filles vont-elles en classe? Are these girls going to class?
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LET’S PRACTICE
A.) L’Étudiant anxieux. On the eve of his exam, Michel can’t stop asking questions to his classmate Marc. Construct his questions using the inversion method and based on Marc’s responses. Example: Michel: - L’examen est-il difficile? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile. Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Non, nous n’avons pas 100 équations à résoudre (to solve).
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, j’ai une calculette.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Non, le prof de maths n’est pas sévère.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, Alain est prêt (ready) pour l’examen.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, ce monsieur a des stylos supplémentaires.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile.
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B.) L’Étudiant anxieux. On the eve of his exam, Michel can’t stop asking questions to his classmate Marc. Construct his questions using the “est-ce que” method and based on Marc’s responses. Example: Michel: - Est-ce qu l’examen est difficile? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile. Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Non, nous n’avons pas 100 équations à résoudre (to solve).
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, j’ai une calculette.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Non, le prof de maths n’est pas sévère.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, Alain est prêt (ready) pour l’examen.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, ce monsieur a des stylos supplémentaires.
Michel: ______________________________________________ Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile.
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LET’S PRACTICE [Answer Key]
A.) L’Étudiant anxieux. On the eve of his exam, Michel can’t stop asking questions to his classmate Marc. Construct his questions using the inversion method and based on Marc’s responses. Example: Michel: - L’examen est-il difficile? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile. Michel: Avons-nous 100 équations à résoudre ? Marc : Non, nous n’avons pas 100 équations à résoudre (to solve).
Michel: As-tu une calculette Marc : Oui, j’ai une calculette.
Michel: Le prof de maths est-il sévère ? Marc : Non, le prof de maths n’est pas sévère.
Michel: Alain est-il prêt ? Marc : Oui, Alain est prêt (ready) pour l’examen.
Michel: Ce monsieur a-t-il des stylos supplémentaires ? Marc : Oui, mon frère a des stylos supplémentaires.
Michel: L’examen est-il difficile ? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile.
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B.) L’Étudiant anxieux. On the eve of his exam, Michel can’t stop asking questions to his classmate Marc. Construct his questions using the “est-ce que” method and based on Marc’s responses. [Answer Key] Example: Michel: - Est-ce que l’examen est difficile? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile. Michel: Est-ce que nous avons 100 équations à résoudre ? Marc : Non, nous n’avons pas 100 équations à résoudre (to solve).
Michel: Est-ce que tu as une calculette Marc : Oui, j’ai une calculette.
Michel: Est-ce que nous avons le prof de maths est sévère ? Marc : Non, le prof de maths n’est pas sévère.
Michel: Est-ce qu’Alain est prêt ? Marc : Oui, Alain est prêt (ready) pour l’examen.
Michel: Est-ce que ce monsieur a des stylos supplémentaires ? Marc : Oui, mon frère a des stylos supplémentaires.
Michel: Est-ce que l’examen est difficile ? Marc : Oui, l’examen est difficile.
