2 EST-CE QUE
A very frequent way of asking questions in French, particularly in spoken French, is to use ‘est-ce
que’at the beginning of the declarative sentence
e.g.est-ce que je savais ce que je voulais faire dans la vie?(text 1, lines 3–4).3 INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVES, PRONOUNS AND ADVERBS
a The interrogative adjective quel/lecan be used to start a question and is followed by inversion
of subject and verb. Quel/leagrees with the noun it qualifies.
e.g. à quelle heure ce jour-là passa l’autobus(text 2, lines 1–2).
b Que/qu’(before a vowel) followed by inversion of subject and verb = what
e.g. qu’y remarquâtes-vous (text 2, line 8); qu’y faisait-il (text 2, line 43).
Quoiis a stressed pronoun used after a preposition = what
e.g. en quoi consista ce rebondissement?(text 2, line 37).
c Adverbs are frequently used to introduce questions
e.g.comment cela se traduisit-il? (text 2, line 21);commentse termina cet incident? (text, 2 line
30);où et quand le revîtes-vous? (text 2, line 40).4 SIMPLE INVERSION
Questions can be formed by inverting a pronoun subject and the verb. The subject and the verb
are connected by a hyphen
e.g.y avait-il(text 2, line 5).
Note that in compound tenses the subject pronoun and the auxiliary would be inverted
e.g. y avait-il eu.5 COMPLEX INVERSION
When the subject of a verb is a noun, simple inversion is not possible. The construction known as
‘complex inversion’ replaces it and entails
subject noun + verb + pronoun corresponding to the subject
e.g. son comportement était-il(text 2, line 13);cet incident eut-il un rebondissement(text 2, lines
34–5 comment cela se traduisit-il (text 2, line 21).
In the last example a demonstrative pronoun replaces the subject noun.
The use of complex inversion is characteristic of more formal written French. In text 2, however,
it is used in direct speech for stylistic purposes, the author seeking to give the impression that the
speaker is a pretentious person using affected language. This would not occur in normal
conversation.50 French Grammar in Context