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    French Negatives

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    englishspeakingdude
    This document discusses different ways to ask questions in French. It explains that questions can be formed using "Est-ce que" at the beginning of a sentence, inversion of the subject and verb, raising intonation to turn a statement into a question, or adding "N'est-ce pas?" to the end of an affirmative statement. It provides examples of each method and notes about question words and responding affirmatively to negative questions.

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    French Negatives

    Uploaded by

    englishspeakingdude
    159 views3 pages
    This document discusses different ways to ask questions in French. It explains that questions can be formed using "Est-ce que" at the beginning of a sentence, inversion of the subject and verb, raising intonation to turn a statement into a question, or adding "N'est-ce pas?" to the end of an affirmative statement. It provides examples of each method and notes about question words and responding affirmatively to negative questions.

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    learning to construct negatives sentences in french is quite important

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    This document discusses different ways to ask questions in French. It explains that questions can be formed using "Est-ce que" at the beginning of a sentence, inversion of the subject and verb, raising intonation to turn a statement into a question, or adding "N'est-ce pas?" to the end of an affirmative statement. It provides examples of each method and notes about question words and responding affirmatively to negative questions.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    159 views3 pages

    French Negatives

    Uploaded by

    englishspeakingdude
    This document discusses different ways to ask questions in French. It explains that questions can be formed using "Est-ce que" at the beginning of a sentence, inversion of the subject and verb, raising intonation to turn a statement into a question, or adding "N'est-ce pas?" to the end of an affirmative statement. It provides examples of each method and notes about question words and responding affirmatively to negative questions.

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    1.

    Est-ce que Est-ce que, literally "is it that," can be placed at the beginning of any affirmative sentence to turn it into a question: Est-ce que vous dansez ? Do you dance? Est-ce que tu veux voir un film ? Do you want to see a movie? Est-ce qu'il est arriv ? Has he arrived? Place any question words* in front of est-ce que: Quand est-ce que tu veux partir ? When do you want to leave? Pourquoi est-ce qu'il a menti ? Why did he lie? Quel livre est-ce que vous cherchez ? Which book are you looking for? 2. Inversion A more formal way to ask questions is withinversion: invert the conjugated verb and subject pronoun and join them with a hyphen: Dansez-vous ? Do you dance? Veux-tu voir un film ? Do you want to see a movie? Est-il arriv ? Has he arrived? Again, place any interrogative words at the beginning of the question: Quand veux-tu partir ? When do you want to leave? Pourquoi a-t-il menti ?** Why did he lie? Quel livre cherchez-vous ? Which book are you looking for? You can use inversion to ask negative questions*** Ne dansez-vous pas ?

    Don't you dance? N'est-il pas encore arriv ? Hasn't he arrived yet? 3. Statement as question A very simple but informal way to ask yes/no questions is to raise the pitch of your voice while pronouncing any sentence: Vous dansez ? You dance? Tu veux voir un film ? You want to see a movie? Il est arriv ? He arrived? You can also use this structure to ask negative questions: Tu ne danses pas ? You don't dance? Il n'est pas encore arriv ? He hasn't arrived yet? 4. N'est-ce pas ? If you're pretty sure the answer to your question is yes, you can just make an affirmative statement and then add the tag n'est-ce pas ? to the end. This is also informal: Tu danses, n'est-ce pas ? You dance, right? Tu veux voir un film, n'est-ce pas ? You want to see a movie, right? Il est arriv, n'est-ce pas ? He arrived, right? There are other informal ways to ask questions, which you can read about in my lesson oninformal questions. Notes The French equivalent of the verb "to ask" is demander, but "to ask a question" is poser une question - learn more. *There are two main types of questions: 1. Yes/no questions, also known as polar questions or closed questions (questions fermes), ask for a simple yes or no answer. 2. Information questions, also known as WH questions, constituent questions, or open questions ( questions ouvertes), ask for information with question words, like who, what, when, where, why, which, how, how much/many. See links below for lessons on French question words. **When using inversion with the third person singular (il, elle, or on) and a verb that ends in a vowel, you must add t- between the verb and subject pronoun (why?):

    Aime-t-il les films ? - Does he like movies? coute-t-elle la radio ? - Does she listen to the radio? A-t-on dcid ? - Have we decided? ***There is a special French word, si, that is used only when responding in the affirmative to a negative question. (I wish English had a word like this!) Affirmative questions Negative questions - Vas-tu au cin ? - Oui ! - Are you going to the movies? - Yes! - Est-ce que tu veux venir ? - Oui ! - Do you want to come? - Yes! - Ne vas-tu pas au cin ? - Si ! - Aren't you going to the movies? - Yes (I am)! - Tu ne veux pas venir ? - Si ! - You don't want to come? - Yes (I do)!

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