Lesson 7 - Grammar 4 - Question-words
| Examples: |
|---|
| Comment allez-vous? |
| Quelle heure est-il? |
| Où allons-nous déjeuner? |
| Combien font deux et deux? |
| Qu'avez-vous fait pendant le week-end? |
| Pourquoi ne l'envoyez-vous pas de chez vous? |
The question-words which are used at the beginning of a question and also after a preposition are the following:
| French / Français | English / Anglais |
|---|---|
| qui? | who? |
| qu', que? | what? |
| où? | where? |
| quand? | when? |
| pourquoi? | why? |
| comment? | how? |
| combien? | how much, how many? |
| quel, quelle? | which, what? |
The question-words are followed by subject-verb inversion, whether the subject is a noun or a pronoun:
| Examples: | Structure: |
|---|---|
| Comment va votre frère? | Q + Verb + Noun |
| Comment va-t-il? | Q + Verb + SP |
The question-word combien may occur before a noun; in this position it has the form combien de:
| Examples: |
|---|
| Combien vous dois-je? |
| Combien de malles avez-vous? |
The question-words quel, quelle, etc. may occur before a noun; in this position it is a noun-marker and has the shapes described in lesson 5, Grammar 1.
| Examples: |
|---|
| Pour quelle date? |
| Par quel train partez-vous? |
Quel may also occur before third-person forms of the one verb être:
| Examples: |
|---|
| Quelle est votre pointure? |
| Quelles sont les heures d'arrivée? |
Questions containing question-words may have the same intonation as statements:
| Example: |
|---|
| Où est le restaurant? |
| may have the same intonation as : C'est le restaurant. |