22
votes
Accepted
Is "De qui parles-tu" (for example) as formal as its English equivalent, or is it normal for the French to casually say that ?
"De qui parles-tu ?" would be a perfectly normal thing to say to a close friend, even if some would notice the effort on the construction of the sentence. If you want to make it sound really casual, ...
- 336
18
votes
In the sentence "Tu l'as acheté où ce pantalon ?". what does the "l" apart of the "l'as" do?
Technically, the sentence is missing a comma:
Tu l'as acheté où, ce pantalon ?
To parse it, better to first ignore the trailing part that is optional. That reads:
Tu l'as acheté où ? or the ...
- 146k
14
votes
Accepted
Can I end an "est-ce que" question with "est'?
Short answer: "Où est-ce que ma chaise est ?" is correct.
Long answer: "est-ce que" is used in order to keep the order between the subject and the verb.
For "Ma chaise est là.&...
- 347
14
votes
Can I end an "est-ce que" question with "est'?
As a native I would say :
Où est-ce qu'est ma chaise?
Où est ma chaise?
I think you do not say Où est-ce que ma chaise est? or at least I never hear people using it.
Maybe because it is not a ...
- 766
12
votes
"Que devrions-nous le baser dessus" or "Que devrions-nous le baser sur"?
I would personally say:
Sur quoi devrions-nous le baser?
The two phrasings you have suggested seem incorrect to me.
- 1,924
11
votes
Accepted
Is this the correct way to ask "What time do you get up in the morning?"
Il y a plusieurs manières de poser cette question, par exemple :
Le matin, tu te lèves à quelle heure ? (Attention aux accents)
À quelle heure est-ce que tu te lèves le matin ?
À quelle heure te ...
- 288
11
votes
Accepted
How do I properly word this question in French?
To correct your proposals:
Quelle est ta chanson préférée de lui ?
De ses chansons, quelle est ta préférée ? (chanson is a feminine noun).
Or other suggestions:
Laquelle de ses chansons préfères-tu ...
- 1,509
9
votes
How to say: How does he look like? Happy, sad?
I would say "Comment a-t-il l'air d'aller ?" or simply "Comment va-t-il ?".
"De quoi a-t-il l'air ?" is possible too, but it refers more to the physical appearance.
- 6,062
9
votes
Accepted
"Pourquoi l'hôtel est-il complet?" Why est-il and not just est?
Even though this is more or less a duplicate, I'll add an explanation that I didn't see when skimming previous answers.
The subject pronouns are clitics, which have some fascinating properties but ...
- 19.2k
9
votes
Choosing Between Intonation/Est-ce que/Inversion Question Forms
I would tend to agree with your characterization of tone as informal (only when speaking anyway), est-ce que being fairly standard/neutral/common these days, and the inversion being more formal - ...
- 8,684
9
votes
Accepted
“Que” vs. “Qu'est-ce que”
They are equivalent in meaning. The form with the subject and verb inverted is more formal.
In general, the order of question formality from most to least looks like this:
Subject-verb inversion
...
- 19.2k
8
votes
Accepted
"Comment tu t'appelles" versus "Vous vous appelez comment"
There are two differences between the proposed constructions:
Using tu or vous
I suppose this is not the problem and won't even stop on this. If this is a problem, I suppose a separate question ...
- 4,475
8
votes
How do you say "Which instrument do you play" in French?
The grammatically correct formal sentence would be:
De quel instrument jouez-vous ?
A still grammatical spoken French:
De quel instrument est-ce que vous jouez ?
In non formal, real life, you'll ...
- 146k
8
votes
Accepted
Placement of ne and pas to mean “What have you not done?”
“Qu'as fait tu ?” is not correct. According to francaisfacile.com (emphasis mine), in questions:
On conjugue un verbe impérativement en plaçant le pronom sujet
a) après le verbe aux temps ...
- 455
8
votes
"Qui sommes nous ?" ou "Qui sommes-nous ?"
Seule la forme avec trait d'union est correcte.
Quand un pronom personnel suit un verbe à la forme interrogative et qu'il en est le sujet, un trait d'union doit être présent.
La réforme ...
- 146k
8
votes
Accepted
"Qui sommes nous ?" ou "Qui sommes-nous ?"
Plusieurs sources fiables indiquent que le trait d’union doit être utilisé lorsque le verbe précède le pronom, que ce soit dans la tournure interrogative (Qui sommes-nous ?) ou dans les incises («...
- 11.3k
8
votes
Differences between “pas vrai ?”, “c’est ça ?”, “hein ?”, and “n’est-ce pas ?”
The translation for each would be
pas vrai - no way (when being astonished, not very formal) or right (common)
c'est ça - is that it (common)
n'est-il pas - isn't it (formal)
"Hein" doesn't really ...
- 600
8
votes
Accepted
Is "à quoi conduis-tu les enfants?" correct?
C'est bien « où conduis-tu les enfants ? », car l'école est un lieu.
- 96
8
votes
How can I say "Vous nous appelez quand?" with an inverted structure?
Vous nous appelez. > Nous appelez-vous ?
Vous nous appelez demain. > Quand nous appelez-vous ?
The basic rule: Invert the subject and the verb.
But when you do so, if there's an object pronoun,...
- 19.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Why is there no "à" before "boire" and "manger" when asking question?
The verb vouloir can be followed by either a bare infinitive or a noun phrase.
que voudriez-vous boire?
que voudriez-vous manger?
In these sentences, there is no preposition before "boire" ...
- 2,793
7
votes
Accepted
Is "D'où vient que..." a common expression?
The idiomatic phrasing is:
Comment se fait-il que … ?
For some reason the clause is usually in the subjunctive mood. In this case:
Comment se fait-il que je sois arrivé avant toi ?
It could ...
- 30.3k
7
votes
How do you say "how is your X going on"?
That's kinda broad and you will have several translations depending on what you're asking. In a lot of them, the expression Se Passer would make a great fit. For instance:
How is your day going?
...
- 726
7
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a?"
It means "What's up?", "What's happening?". Translated literally, it means "what is there?": "il y a" means "there is" and you turn it into a question. In this context, the friend is asking what the ...
- 3,113
7
votes
"Is/Are there any more..."?
Your first sentence:
Est-ce qu'il y a aucun pain ?
doesn't work. It somewhat means Is there no bread?
Possible ways to express what you are looking for are:
Est-ce qu'il y a encore du pain ?
...
- 146k
7
votes
Accepted
Inversion de 'Il y en a un'
"Y en a-t-il" is not the exact interrogative form of "Il y en a un".
Question :
Y en a-t-il ?
Réponses :
Oui.
... il y en a, mais on ne sait pas combien (au moins un, mais peut-être plus).
...
- 3,745
7
votes
Accepted
Comment on dit "not anymore" en Français?
Je ne fume plus. Plus maintenant
J'ai arreté de fumer!
- 504
7
votes
Accepted
How to answer "ça a été ?" ?
Here are some suggestions but of course there may be plenty of other possibilities:
Very usual (at the restaurant, for example):
C'était très bon, merci.
Tout s'est bien passé, merci.
Common, ...
- 1,856
7
votes
Is "qui" as a question word always singular?
TL;DR: dans une question, lorsque « qui » est le sujet, « qui » est considéré comme singulier et le verbe s'accorde en conséquence. Les questions commençant par « Qui sont ... » existent mais alors « ...
- 517
7
votes
Accepted
"Où qu'ils sont"?
"Où que" is a reinforced question word, exactly equivalent to a simple "où" or to "où est-ce que" or "où c'est que".
Those reinforced forms aren't unique to &...
- 9,709
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