Regarding the sentence « Quelle différence cela fait-il d'apprendre la grammaire ? »

Question

Is this sentence supposed to be a rhetorical question through and through, emphasising the uselessness of using the correct grammar?

= "What difference does it make whether you learn the grammar or not?" {ironically}

On the other hand, if you are really interested to find out about the difference/benefits it makes by learning the grammar, how would you rephrase the sentence? Is it possible to start the sentence with « Quelle différence ... », or would you rather say something like:

Que gagne-t-on à apprendre la grammaire ?

I suppose that it is easy for English speakers to fall into the trap of using the sentence in the title, with a non-sarcastic real question in mind.

Answer 1

Indeed this is good example of a rhetorical question.

It's possible to ask the same question on an (almost) neutral stance as follows:

Quelle différence y a-t-il à apprendre la grammaire ?

“Ça fait une différence” (“It makes a difference”) is more often than not an undersatement of “it changes everything”. It conotes relevance. “Il y a une différence” is meant as a purely analytic statement.