En bonne forme, 8th Edition
En bonne forme, 8th Edition
Student Website
Selected Grammar Explanations in English
Chapter 10
The Interrogative Form
The Interrogative Form Using the Verb
Inversion
1. Simple inversion: the subject is a pronoun. For all simple tenses, place the subject pronoun after the verb with a hyphen. This construction has rising intonation.
Etes-vous content? Viendront-ils?
a. For all compound tenses, place the subject pronoun after the auxiliary. The past participle is placed after the pronoun.
Sont-ils partis? Avez-vous voyagé?
b. In the negative form, ne ... pas (ne ... plus, ne ... jamais) surrounds the verb in simple tenses and surrounds the auxiliary in compound verb structures.
N'êtes-vous pas content? Ne sont-ils jamais sortis?
2. Double inversion: the subject is a noun.
a. In simple tenses, the subject noun remains in front of the verb, and is repeated in pronoun form after the verb.
Ce jeune homme court-il tous les jours?
b. In compound tenses, the subject noun remains in front of the auxiliary, and is repeated in pronoun form between the auxiliary and the past participle.
Le courrier est-il arrivé?
Interrogative Words
The interrogative adjective: quel, quelle, quels, quelles
The interrogative adjective is always accompanied by a noun; it agrees in gender and in number with this noun. When there is a preposition, the preposition precedes the group.
Quelles fleurs préférez-vous?
The interrogative adjective and the noun are occasionally separated by être.
Quels sont les meilleurs yaourts?
Interrogative Pronouns Indicating Identity
You ask identity questions about people or things. The pronouns used for this are different depending on their grammatical function (subject, object, or prepositional object). There are short and long forms.
1. Short forms
a. People: qui. When you ask an identity question about a person, you always use the interrogative pronoun qui.
Qui a fait une enquête? —Pierre a fait une enquête. (subject)
Qui avez-vous vu? —J'ai vu Pierre. (direct object)
De qui parlez-vous? —Je parle de Pierre. (prepositional object)
b. Things: que, quoi. When you ask an identity question about a thing, there is no short form for the subject. The direct object is que and the prepositional object is quoi.
Que faites-vous? —Je fais des sondages. (direct object)
Avec quoi écrivez-vous? —J'écris avec un stylo. (prepositional object)
2. Usage of the short forms
a. If de is one part of the partitive article (de l', de la ou du), then the noun is a partitive direct object and answers the question que.
Je bois de l'eau. Que buvez-vous?
b. For a prepositional object, the pronoun is always the first word in the interrogative phrase.
Avec quoi ...? Chez qui ...?
c. After qui and quoi, use simple inversion for the subject pronoun, and double inversion for the subject noun.
De qui parlez-vous? Avec quoi cet enfant écrit-il?
3. Long forms
a. People: qui est-ce qui, qui est-ce que. For the long form, you add est-ce qui after qui (the short form of the subject), and est-ce que after qui (the short form of the direct and prepositional objects).
Qui est-ce qui a téléphoné?
Avec qui est-ce que Marie a parlé?
b. Things: qu'est-ce qui, qu'est-ce que. Add est-ce qui after que (qu') to construct the long form of the subject.
Qu'est-ce qui arrive? —Un accident.
Add est-ce que after que (the short form of the direct object) and after quoi (the short form of the prepositional object).
Qu'est-ce que vous voyez? —Le ciel.
4. Usage of the long forms
a. There is never pronominal inversion in the long form.
b. Qu'est-ce qui is the only subject pronoun for things.
Interrogative Pronouns Indicating Choice
In order to indicate the choice of one person or one thing in a group, you must use the pronouns lequel, laquelle (which one?).
Vous avez lu tous les poèmes de Victor Hugo: lequel préférez-vous?
1. The pronoun agrees with the noun it represents.
Ils ont quatre fils; lesquels sont mariés?
2. You form a contraction with the prepositions de and à when used with the le and les of lequel, lesquels, lesquelles. The result is duquel, desquels, desquelles; auquel, auxquels, auxquelles. De laquelle and à laquelle do not form contractions.
Ils parlent des champions russes: desquels parlent-ils?
Vous parlez à une amie: à laquelle parlez-vous?
3. Use inversion after lequel, laquelle, etc., when these words function as direct or prepositional objects. To avoid inversion, you can use est-ce que.
Je lui ai offert deux autos: laquelle conduit-elle?
laquelle est-ce qu'elle conduit?
Interrogative Adverbs
The interrogative adverbs are où, quand, comment, combien, pourquoi.
1. With où, quand, comment, combien, if the sentence is composed simply of a verb and a subject, then you have a simple inversion of the noun: adverb + verb+ subject noun.
Où sont mes papiers? Comment dorment les chevaux?
2. You cannot use simple inversion of the noun with pourquoi; you must use double inversion. You can, however, use simple pronominal inversion.
Pourquoi vos enfants crient-ils?
Pourquoi pleure-t-il?
3. If où, quand, comment, combien, or pourquoi begin a sentence such as "subject noun + verb + direct object," you must use double inversion and never use simple inversion.
Où le professeur a-t-il mis ses papiers?
With all interrogative adverbs, the long form is always possible.
Comment est-ce que vous avez enregistré cette conversation?
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