How to ask a question in French: 3 ways explained
Coffee Break French
Radio Lingua Network
4.6 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There are three main ways to ask a question in French, and the one you choose depends on how formal you want to sound. In this episode, Max walks you through rising intonation, est-ce que and inversion, and shows you how to combine each one with question words like où, quand and comment. By the end, you'll be ready to ask just about anything in French!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Max the Coffee Break French. |
| 0:03.6 | Biennue in this episode consacred to questions. |
| 0:08.6 | If you've been learning French for a while, you may have noticed something a bit confusing |
| 0:13.9 | sometimes compared to English. |
| 0:16.4 | And I'm talking about asking a question. |
| 0:19.3 | In English, asking a question is pretty straightforward. |
| 0:23.8 | You usually just change the word order. So if you say you are ready, to make it a question, |
| 0:30.7 | are you ready? But in French, things are a little different? Because in reality reality we have three main ways to ask a question. |
| 0:41.0 | And depending on a situation, some are much more natural than others. |
| 0:46.6 | So in this episode, I'm going to talk to you about the three main ways to ask a question in French, |
| 0:53.5 | in which context people use them, |
| 0:56.0 | and which one native speakers use the most. |
| 0:59.0 | All right, let's start. |
| 1:05.0 | Let's start with the easiest way to ask a question in French. |
| 1:16.7 | Just raise your voice at the end of the sentence. |
| 1:20.9 | The most common way to ask a question in everyday French is actually the simplest. |
| 1:25.8 | You do not change the word order at all. |
| 1:28.8 | You just raise your voice at the end. |
| 1:31.6 | Per example, |
| 1:33.0 | You venice this soire? |
| 1:34.9 | Are you coming tonight? |
| 1:36.5 | You venice to-soir? |
... |
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