Practice Makes Perfect

est-ce que/qu’ + subject + predicate 

helping verb (do/does/did/will) +  

 

 

  subject + predicate

Est-ce que vous faites du ski? 

Do you ski?

Est-ce que tu ne me dois pas d’argent? 

Don’t you owe me money?

Est-ce qu’ils ne sont pas arrivés? 

Did they not arrive?

Est-ce que tu iras les chercheras ? 

Will you pick them up?

7·5

EXERCICE

Translate each question into French using est-ce que.

1.  Is the sun shining today?

2.  Are we going to the beach?

3.  Do you (tu) want to have breakfast on the terrace?

4.  Will we go swim in the sea after breakfast?

5.  Are you (tu) still a little sleepy?

6.  Do you (tu) need a good shower?

Interrogative sentences with inversion

Another way to create interrogative sentences is to use the inversion method. The inverted inter-

rogative structure is somewhat formal but is sometimes used in informal situations, for example, 

when asking for the time: Quelle heure est-il? To create such an interrogative structure, we will 

once again start with the declarative sentence. It will be important, however, to distinguish 

between a subject pronoun and a subject noun in the sentence when using this method.

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