In written form, is it correct to repeat the inversion in a question? For example: "Pensez-vous......, auriez-vous... ?"
The sentence was: "Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 août auriez-vous le temps...?"
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2What do you mean with "repeat the inversion in a question". There's no repetition in Pensez-vous ?... or Auriez-vous?...? And can you look as the answers to these to see if you can find an answer to your question? Inversions in questions Sentence inversion for questions.– NoneCommented Aug 24, 2021 at 17:35
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2It's probably better if you can be more explicit in your question. Join two sentences with et is always possible, for example : Peux-tu manger et peux-tu m'écouter en même temps ? Having a comma might depend on what you want to say. I just wonder why you want a comma and not a period.– NoneCommented Aug 24, 2021 at 17:48
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2Sorry, I should probably have added a smiley to my previous comment. I was just stating that Vous pensez inverted gives Pensez-vous, but inverted again gives back Vous pensez... There is no such thing as a "double inversion". Double negation for example exists in English : "I don't want no cake" but two successive negative verbal forms ("I don't want cake, I don't want a drink") do not make a double negation. That's the same with inversions. Two successive inversions are not a double inversion.– jlliagreCommented Aug 24, 2021 at 21:19
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2That depends on how you define very bad. If that was your application letter for the Académie française, it's dead :-) If the main goal was to be understood, I have no doubt that's the case.– jlliagreCommented Aug 24, 2021 at 22:30
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2In English: "Do you think you'll have time to do it?" vs "Do you think will you have time to do it?"– jlliagreCommented Aug 24, 2021 at 22:32
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1 Answer
If we write two full sentences we would usually have a question mark after each question.
- Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin ? Auriez-vous l’obligeance de refermer la porte derrière vous.
The way to escape that would be to join the two sentences with et, not a comma.
- Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin et auriez-vous l’obligeance de fermer la porte derrière vous ?
It is grammatical but sounds rather awkward. Personally I would rather write:
- Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin et avoir l'obligeance de fermer la porte derrière vous ?
With a different sentence we could have:
- As-tu déjà pris le train et es-tu déjà allé en France ?
And you would have et or two question marks, not a comma.
Now that the question has been edited the answer above is no longer suited.
Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 août auriez-vous le temps...?" is not correct at all.
Even if eventually you want to know if the person has time, the question you want to ask is on penser, not avoir le temps. Avoir le temps is part of the information asked for but it is not part of the grammatical question, grammatically that part of the sentence is a subordinate clause that depends on the main clause that is pensez-vous..
- Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 aout vous auriez le temps (de...) ?
You could also write:
- Pensez avoir le temps (de...) d'ici le 30 août ?
