Basic Questions

Asking questions is one of the most important skills for a language learner. French has several ways to form questions, from casual intonation to formal inversion. This lesson covers the essential question words and the three main ways to ask questions in French.

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French Question Words

French	English	Pronunciation
qui	who	"kee"
que / qu'est-ce que	what	"kuh" / "kes-kuh"
où	where	"oo"
quand	when	"kahn" (nasal)
comment	how	"koh-MAHN"
pourquoi	why	"poor-KWAH"
combien	how much / how many	"kohm-BYAHN"
quel / quelle	which / what	"kel"

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Qui (Who)

Qui asks about a person.

French	English
Qui est-ce ?	Who is it?
Qui parle français ici ?	Who speaks French here?
Avec qui tu travailles ?	Who do you work with?
C'est qui ?	Who is it? (informal)
Qui est ton professeur ?	Who is your teacher?

Grammar Note: When qui is the subject, the verb that follows is always in the third person singular: Qui veut du café ? (Who wants coffee?)

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Que / Qu'est-ce que (What)

Que asks about a thing or action. In spoken French, qu'est-ce que is far more common than the shorter que with inversion.

French	English	Register
Qu'est-ce que c'est ?	What is it?	Standard
Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?	What are you doing?	Standard
Qu'est-ce que tu veux ?	What do you want?	Standard
Que faites-vous ?	What are you doing?	Formal (inversion)
Tu fais quoi ?	What are you doing?	Very informal
C'est quoi ?	What is it?	Very informal
C'est quoi, ça ?	What is that?	Very informal

Tip: In casual speech, you can put quoi at the end: Tu veux quoi ? (What do you want?) This is extremely common in everyday French.

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Où (Where)

French	English
Où est la gare ?	Where is the station?
Où habites-tu ?	Where do you live?
Tu habites où ?	Where do you live? (informal)
Où est-ce que vous allez ?	Where are you going?
D'où venez-vous ?	Where do you come from?
D'où viens-tu ?	Where do you come from? (informal)

Note: Où always has a grave accent to distinguish it from ou (or).

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Quand (When)

French	English
Quand est-ce que tu arrives ?	When are you arriving?
Tu arrives quand ?	When are you arriving? (informal)
Quand part le train ?	When does the train leave?
C'est quand, ton anniversaire ?	When is your birthday? (informal)
Depuis quand ?	Since when?

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Comment (How)

French	English
Comment allez-vous ?	How are you? (formal)
Comment tu t'appelles ?	What is your name? (literally: how do you call yourself?)
Comment dit-on "hello" en français ?	How do you say "hello" in French?
Comment ça marche ?	How does it work?
Comment faire ?	How to do it?
Comment on dit... ?	How do you say...?

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Pourquoi (Why) and Parce que (Because)

French	English
Pourquoi tu apprends le français ?	Why are you learning French?
Pourquoi est-ce que c'est fermé ?	Why is it closed?
Pourquoi pas ?	Why not?

Answering with "Because"

French	English	Usage
parce que	because	Gives a reason/cause
car	because / for	More formal, written French
puisque	since / given that	States an obvious or known reason

Question	Answer
Pourquoi tu es fatigué ?	Parce que j'ai mal dormi. (Because I slept badly.)
Pourquoi tu apprends le français ?	Parce que j'aime la France. (Because I love France.)

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Combien (How Much / How Many)

French	English
Combien ça coûte ?	How much does it cost?
C'est combien ?	How much is it?
Combien de personnes ?	How many people?
Tu as combien de frères ?	How many brothers do you have?
Combien de temps ?	How long? (How much time?)
Il y en a combien ?	How many are there?

Structure: Combien de + noun (no article): Combien de livres ? (How many books?) NOT Combien des livres.

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Quel / Quelle (Which / What)

Quel is an adjective that agrees with the noun it modifies: