1. LES EXPRESSIONS L’INTERROGATION notes below • Intonation • Intonation
• Introduction
Yes/no questions - Information questions
• Intonation • Intonation
• Est-ce que/ • Est-ce que/
n’est-ce pas? n’est-ce pas?
• Inversion • Inversion
• quoi, qu’est-ce que, quel
LES EXPRESSIONS
INTERROGATIVES
• Compound interrogatives
• Shortened forms
Bonjour tout le monde!
Thank you for your interest in my power points!
Please see the overview section. This information will also be on the CD.
-Sue Cotter .

2. Yes/No Questions Intonation • Start with a statement :
Tu vas au cinéma.
• Put a question mark at the end :
Tu vas au cinéma ?
• Raise the pitch of your voice as you
get to the end of the question :
Tu vas au cinéma?
I tried to keep the way you go about forming a question the same for each type of question so the students could get into a pattern.

3. Yes/No Questions Inversion • If the verb ends in a vowel, insert -t-
continued
• If the verb ends in a vowel, insert -t-
between the inverted subject and verb :
il a
elle visite
• You can use a person’s name or other
noun with inversion :
Marie, va-t-elle avec nous?
Le train, est-il à l’heure?
→ a-t-il
→ a il
→ visite elle
→ visite-t-elle
If you want, you can tell them that the “– t –” didn’t come out of thin air, it’s like the ils plural form of the verb.
You might want to tell them that when an inverted verb ends in a “d”, then the “d” is pronounced like a “t” : vend-il, prend-elle, etc.
You could also remind them that the redundancy of Marie, va-t-elle is not usually done in English. I tend to do it though, and it drives my mother crazy -even after all these years!

4. Information Questions Inversion
• Start with a statement that provides
information :
Tu vas au cinéma.
• Form an inverted question :
Vas-tu au cinéma?
• Choose the correct question word for
the information and put it at the beginning :
Où vas-tu?
There is no need to raise the pitch of your voice.
“There is no need to raise the pitch of your voice” - see est-ce que questions.
I have heard questions like Où tu vas? but it seems to be pretty slangy or, as I’ve particularly noticed in movies, to give the impression that someone is kind of “rough”. Please correct me if I’m wrong - .

5. Information Questions quoi
• Use quoi like you do in an information
question with intonation by starting with a
statement that provides information :
Tu veux une nouvelle voiture
pour ton anniversaire.
• Substitute quoi for the information :
Tu veux quoi pour ton anniversaire?
• There is no need to raise the pitch of your
voice as you get to the end of the question.
“There is no need to raise the pitch of your voice” - see est-ce que questions.

6. EXPRESSIONS INTERROGATIVES • qui est-ce qui • qu’est-ce qui
There are four interrogative expressions :
• qui est-ce qui
• qu’est-ce qui
They are divided into two parts :
• The meaning
• The grammatical function
• qui est-ce que
• qu’est-ce que
– Are you talking about
a person or a thing?
These expressions were always a problem But, after this explanation they seemed to “get it”.
As in the other part of the presentation, the colors serve only to relate items on a single slide.
– Do you need
a subject or a direct object?

7. Shortened forms • Some interrogatives can be shortened.
• You may have to invert the subject and verb.
qui est-ce qui → qui
• Combine the “qui” and drop the inverted est-ce :
Qui est-ce qui arrive à la porte? →
Qui arrive à la porte?
qui est-ce que → qui + inversion
• Drop the verbal question mark est-ce que :
Qui est-ce que tu invites au cinéma? →
Qui invites-tu au cinéma?
I tried to keep this as consistent with the others as possible.
This is the only time I used purple. I wanted to show that the blue and red combine, sort of.
You could tell them that when you drop the est-ce que you have to invert. As I said previously, I have heard questions like Qui tu invites? but it seems to be pretty slangy . No offense intended, but I think students should avoid this construction.