ordo_kai

[unkempt pebble]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[novel gulch]

Est-ce que is never necessary, but when you don't use it the syntax changes. More generally, there are 3 ways to formulate questions and using est-ce que is just one of them:

Que fait-il ?
Qu'est-ce qu'il fait ?
Il fait quoi ?

[remote gorge]

Que fait-il ?
Is it true that inversion very formal way to ask question? Do people use it in speech?

[novel gulch]

It is indeed rather formal: it does not occur much at all in casual speech.

[remote gorge]

So intonation and "est-ce que" are the ways?

[daring horizon]

In oral and/or informal speech yes

Do note that for « que » it changes form when you're doing it with intonation. With intonation, the question word tends to be moved to the end of the phrase, and when that happens, « que » changes into « quoi ».
Que fait-il ?
**Qu'**est-ce qu'il fait ?
Il fait quoi ?