Interrogative Constructions
Yes/No Questions
questions with intonation
One of the easiest ways to ask a question that may be answered by yes/no is to raise the pitch of your voice at the end of a statement. In a declarative statement, the pitch normally falls. Listen to the following dialogue and pay close attention to the intonation.
| Tex: Trey, tu aimes la philosophie? | Tex: Trey, do you like philosophy? |
| Trey: Non. Je n’aime pas la philosophie. | Trey: No. I do not like philosophy. |
| Tex: Tu connais Sartre? | Tex: Do you know Sartre? |
| Trey: Non. Qui est-ce? | Trey: No. Who is that? |
| Tex: Gloups! C’est l’auteur du chef d’oeuvre existentialiste, La Nausée. | Tex: Gulp! He’s the author of the existentialist masterpiece, Nausea. |
questions using ‘est-ce que … ?’
Another way to ask a yes/no question is to place est-ce que before a statement. Note that que becomes qu’ before a vowel.
| Trey: Et toi, Tex, est-ce que tu aimes les films? | Trey: And you, Tex, do you like films? |
| Tex: Bien sûr, j’adore les films. | Tex: Of course, I adore films. |
| Trey: Est-ce que tu connais Yoda? | Trey: Do you know Yoda? |
| Tex: Non. Qui est-ce? | Tex: No. Who is that? |
| Trey: Duh … | Trey: Duh … |
questions using ‘n’est-ce pas ?’
N’est-ce pas? is added to the end of a yes/no question when the speaker expects an affirmative response.
| Trey: Tu connais ‘La guerre des étoiles,’ n’est-ce pas? Yoda, c’est le petit sage. | Trey: You know ‘Star Wars,’ don’t you? Yoda is the little wise man. |
Listen to the end of the dialogue:
| Trey: Yoda est mon héros. Tu ne connais pas Yoda? | Trey: Yoda is my hero. You don’t know Yoda? |
| Tex: Ah, si, si, si*, je connais le petit philosophe. Est-ce que tu es fou? Yoda n’est pas Sartre. | Tex: Ah, yes, yes, yes, I do know the little philosopher. Are you crazy? Yoda is not Sartre. |
| Trey: Oh, mais la philosophie de Yoda est plus intéressante que la philosophie existentialiste de La Nausée! Tu es d’accord, n’est-ce pas? | Trey: Oh, but Yoda’s philosophy is more interesting than the existentialist philosophy of La Nausée! You agree, don’t you? |
| Tex: Quel crétin! Retourne à tes jeux électroniques! | Tex: What an idiot! Go back to your video games! |
*Si is used to answer ‘yes’ to a negative question.
