Module 05: Bon appétit!
Deuxième partie: Au café, au restaurant / explication de grammaire
In this section:
Questions with subject/verb inversion
There are several ways to form questions in French.
Inversion
Formal questions may be asked by reversing the subject pronoun/verb order and linking the two with a hyphen (-). You may have already seen inversion in fixed expressions like the following greetings:
‘Comment allez-vous?’, ‘Comment vous appelez-vous?’, ‘Quelle heure est-il?’.
| Anne choisit ses cours pour le semestre prochain. | Anne is choosing her classes for next semester. | |
| Anne: Jason, as-tu des idées? | Anne: Jason, do you have any ideas? | |
| Jean et Marc, connaissez-vous de bons cours? | Jean and Mark, do you know any good courses? |
addition of -t- in third person singular
In the third person singular, when the verb ends in a vowel, a -t- is added to make
the liaison possible.
| Corey se parle à lui-même: | Corey thinks to himself: | |
| Voyons. Marc aime-t-il les lettres? Non! | Let’s see. Does Marc like the humanities? No! | |
| A-t-il envie d’étudier les maths? Non! | Does he want to study math? No! | |
| Va-t-il devenir médecin? Oh, jamais! | Is he going to become a doctor? Oh, never! | |
| Aime-t-il les sciences? Oui! | Does he like science? Yes! | |
| A-t-il des frères ou des sœurs ? Oui! | Does he have brothers and sisters? Yes! |
addition of a pronoun with a noun or proper name
When the subject is a proper name or noun, the corresponding subject pronoun (il, elle, ils, or elles) is added for inversion with the verb.
| Et les étudiantes de Sciences Po foot suivent-elles ce cours? | Do students of political sciences take this class? | |
| Ce cours est-il difficile? | Is this class difficult? | |
compound tenses
In compound tenses, such as the passé composé, the subject pronoun is inverted with the auxiliary (the conjugated verb).
| As-tu suivi ce cours? | Did you take this class? | |
| Avez-vous l’adresse ? | Do you have the address? |
negation
Ne precedes the conjugated verb and the second half of the negative (pas, jamais, plus, etc.) follows the pronoun.
| Pourquoi n’as-tu pas réussi l’examen? | Why didn’t you pass the exam? | |
| Pourquoi n’avez-vous pas fait vos devoirs ? | Why didn’t you do your homework? |
est-ce’ and ‘y a-t-il’
The inverted forms of ‘c’est’ and ‘il y a’ are est-ce and y a-t-il.
| Comment est-ce possible? | How is this possible? | |
| N‘y a-t-il pas un cours de français ici ? | Isn’t there a French class here? |
Le verbe prendre – to take (an irregular verb)
Verbs like prendre are conjugated like regular -re verbs in the singular, but not in the plural. Note the difference in the stem in the plural forms.
| prendre ‘to take’ | |
| je prends | nous prenons |
| tu prends | vous prenez |
| il/elle/iel/on prend | ils/elles/iels prennent |
| past participle: pris | |
Verbs conjugated like prendre include:
| apprendre, to learn |
| comprendre, to understand |
| surprendre, to surprise |
exemple :
| Ils surprennent leur ami. | They surprise their friend. |
| Qu’est-ce que tu fais? Tu vas où? Pourquoi tu prends un taxi? | What are you doing? Where are you going? Why are you taking a taxi? |
| Je suis en retard. Je vais en classe. Aujourd’hui mes étudiants apprennent à chanter la Marseillaise! | I’m late. I’m going to class. Today my students are learning to sing the Marseillaise! |
