jowiltyk

[safe root]

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[placid plover]

qu'est-ce que - What
est-ce - is it that (asking formal questions, ie: is it that you like coffee?)

qu'est-ce que c'est? whats this

[vestal quiver]

Hi, so the full expression is « est-ce que » and it literally means, 'is it that'. « est-ce que » is used in order to avoid inversion when asking a question in French, especially with question words like « que ».

[placid plover]

qu'est-ce que tu fais - what are you doing

est-ce que tu aimes du café? is it that you like coffee?

[frail siren]

Not a native but I use est-ce for yes/no questions generally

Like the coffee example mentioned above

[placid plover]

always.

[clever rune]

so qu'est-ce followed by the word depicts the question of the sentence? eg if its followed by quand ots going to be asking when?

[clever rune]

that helps

[vestal quiver]

« Qu'est-ce » by itself is a complete sentence btw, you have to use « Qu'est-ce que »

[clever rune]

so people usually dont use "est-ce que" in convosations they just ask the question directly?

[clever rune]

ahh i see

[frail siren]

With qu'est-ce you're asking for the object of the verb, so like, you always do SOMETHING, right? You use qu'est-ce when you want to know that something:
Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?
Qu'est-ce que tu écoutes ?
Qu'est-ce qu'il voulait ?
And so on

[clever rune]

Qu'est-ce means who is it right? i checked on google translate

[placid plover]

qu'est-ce que - What
est-ce que - Is it that (y/n ans)
quand - when
où - where
comment - how

[clever rune]

so Qu'est-ce que is basically "what are you" - verb?

[placid plover]

qui - who

im on a train the data slow

[placid plover]

if youre being formal only. like when you'd use "may i know"

[clever rune]

ahh i see

[clever rune]

no worries

[frail siren]

In simplistic terms, yes, but again I'm not native so please wait for someone to confirm :p

[clever rune]

thanks! that helps

[vestal quiver]

A primer on questions: we generally ask questions with inversion in French but inversion can become really messy. As an example, inversion in the context of asking questions doesn't play well with nouns; a pronoun has to be added.
Examples:
« Le professeur vient -> Le professeur vient-il ? »
« Pourquoi + le professeur ne vient pas -> Pourquoi le professeur ne vient-il pas ? »

To avoid that messiness, « est-ce que » acts as dummy inversion so we can preserve the sentence structure. Using our two examples from earlier:
« Le professeur vient -> C'est que le professeur vient -> Est-ce que le professeur vient ? »
« Pourquoi + le professeur ne vient pas -> Pourquoi + c'est que le professeur ne vient pas -> Pourquoi est-ce que le professeur ne vient pas ? »

[placid plover]

qu'est-ce que what, as in what are you doing (qu'est-ce que tu fais?)

[placid plover]

What + to be

like in every instance in englush lmao

what IS your favourite food? qu'est-ce que c'est ton plat préféré?

[vestal quiver]

Now, you can just ask the question directly (Le professeur vient ? Pourquoi le professeur ne vient pas ?) but that's informal

[placid plover]

only exception is what's new (quoi de neuf) but we ignore that

[clever rune]

i think i get it

[vestal quiver]

We tend to group it like so: inversion (formal), est-ce que (neutral), intonation (informal)

[placid plover]

TLDR: Est-ce que, is like the queen asking "Tell me noble citizen, IS IT THAT you fought the war?"

literally

Est - is
Ce - it
Que - that

its formal

like use it to people u use vous to

[vestal quiver]

well no because that implies « est-ce que » as formal when it really isn't

« est-ce que » is neutral

[placid plover]

un peu

[clever rune]

so basically what followed by a verb, rather than just que and then a subject (eg qu'il fait)?

[vestal quiver]

it can be formal, it can be informal

[placid plover]

un petit peu foraml

[placid plover]

yeah, lile qu'est-ce qu'il fait

whats he doing

[clever rune]

this definitely helps paint a picture

[frail siren]

Honestly I wouldn't focus on inverted questions if you're still starting, it's not the most natural way to speak on a daily basis but definitely be aware that it exists, it's much easier to use intonation or est-ce que

[placid plover]

im painting is it that as its retired in english unless youre like the queen. but in french people use it all the time to ask yes/no questions

[vestal quiver]

No. https://toutenfrancais.tv/poser-des-questions-en-francais/

Avec « est-ce que »
C’est la forme la plus neutre, ni formelle ni informelle. On utilise QU’EST-CE QUE = QUE + est-ce que + sujet + verbe :

Qu’est-ce qu’il dit ?
Qu’est-ce que vous dites ?
Qu’est-ce qu’on mange après ?

[clever rune]

ahh i see

[placid plover]

but its neutral yes

more on the formal side

cuz you can just go

tu aimes du café?

insteaf est-ce que tu aimes du café

[vestal quiver]

it's neither formal nor informal, it's just… neutral

[placid plover]

saves you 2 syllables but hey

[clever rune]

yeah its hard you have to think of what youre gonna say and then put it tgt and then say its, its tiresome 😂

[vestal quiver]

if I said, « Est-ce que vous aimez regarder ce film ? » it'll be formal
if I said, « Est-ce que tu veux sortir avec moi ? » it'll be informal

like it's neutral

[clever rune]

thanks! i get it now

[placid plover]

for that its like:
tu aimes du café?
est-ce que tu aimes du café?
aimes-tu du café?

its lile parlez-vous français if youve heard of that phrase

all for asking questions

take your pick tbh :P

[clever rune]

nope 😭

[placid plover]

voulez-vous

the abba song

[clever rune]

idk why that made me this of voulez vous

the abba somg

[clever rune]

YEAH LMAO

[placid plover]

or the stupid phrase 'voulez-vous coucher avec moi'

[placid plover]

yeah

its the same

voulez -vous: do you want

voulez-vous du café? would u like some coffee?

its literally like tjat

[clever rune]

so verb infont and then vous followed by the question?

[placid plover]

verb + - + subject

veux-tu boire du café?

voulent-ils boire du café?

but also

attention

[clever rune]

so ots kinda directed to a person?

[placid plover]

if it ends in a vowel you add a t

aime-t-il du café?

[placid plover]

duh

or a thing

[clever rune]

so for example apprend means learn if i say apprend-moi means teach me?

[placid plover]

thats imperatif, when we give orders

[clever rune]

so like the "-" is kinda the verb directed to the "vous" or "moi" etc?

[placid plover]

thats teach me

fucking train snd mobile data dont ho well togerhwr

ok two different things

[clever rune]

😂😂

[clever rune]

that i didnt know

[placid plover]

verb+subject verb (je/tu/il/elle/nous/vous/ils/elles) is a QUESTION

verb+tonic pronouns (moi/toi etc) is IMPERATIVE (ordering to do something to someone)

dis-moi (tell me)

[clever rune]

ohh i get it now

[placid plover]

dis-nous (tell us)

[clever rune]

so if like "regarder-moi" means watch me?

[placid plover]

yeah

regarde***

[clever rune]

need to get my grammer straight

this helps alot

[placid plover]

to form imperative:
get tu/nous/vous, conjugate and remove pronoun
for ER and Tu, we remove the -S (regarder -> tu regardes -> regarde)
THIS ER AND TU RULE COLLAPSES IF THE NEXT WORD IS A VOWEL (ie. vas-y)

you can see in packets

NE MANGEZ PAS - don't eat

[clever rune]

ahh i see, didnt know that till now

[placid plover]

more u know

[vestal quiver]

Questions in French: Inversion, est-ce que, and intonation. Say we have this sentence, « Tu veux du café (You want some coffee) ». If we want to turn that into a question, we can do one of three things:

1. Inversion
   The formal way of asking a question: you reverse the position of the subject and the verb. In every case where there exists some form of inversion, you add a HYPHEN.
   Tu veux du café -> Veux-tu du café ?
2. est-ce que
   The neutral way of asking a question: just add « est-ce que » before the subject.
   Tu veux du café -> Est-ce que tu veux du café ?
3. Intonation
   The informal way of asking a question: just say it over with a rising tone at the end.
   Tu veux du café -> Tu veux du café ?

[clever rune]

i need to find french test papers bruh

[placid plover]

ab initio ib is pretty good

[vestal quiver]

that hyphen appears in the imperative because in imperative sentences, you invert the verb and the object
Tu me donnes de l'argent -> Donne-moi de l'argent !

[clever rune]

i see, thought est-ce que was formal

[placid plover]

lowkey

[vestal quiver]

this is why the hyphen doesn't appear in a negative imperative because « ne … pas » prevents this inversion
Tu ne me donnes pas d'argent -> Ne me donne pas d'argent !

[placid plover]

but technically no

[clever rune]

is it an app?

[clever rune]

my brain is having trouble absorb this give me a sec 😭

[clever rune]

ohh so in the sense that you cannot put "ne" anywhere if its donne-tu?

like ne donne-tu pas d'argent so its wrong

[vestal quiver]

Again, we tend to avoid inversion outside of formal contexts because it's messy like if it ends with a vowel you have to add -t-
(Il m'aime -> M'aime**-t-il ?)
(Elle t'a donné de l'argent -> T'a-t-**elle de l'argent ?)

and if you have a noun you can't use that raw
(Paul m'aime -> Paul m'aime-t-il ?)
(Aurore t'a donné de l'argent -> Aurore t'a-t-elle donné de l'argent ?)

[vestal quiver]

exactly

[vestal quiver]

basically ne … pas prevents this swap

[clever rune]

i get it now

[placid plover]

its an exam course

[clever rune]

dont think i would inverse it anytime soon i still have to think of what i want to say in english and then translate it 💀

[vestal quiver]

it's why you see people write « ne t'inquiète pas (don't worry) » as just « t'inquiète » and people will still understand that as a negative in spite of it not having « ne … pas »

because if it had been positive, it would've been « Inquiète-toi (Be worried!) »

[clever rune]

its not like say when you look at an apple and then the word "apple" appears in your mind i have to think in english and then translate it 😭

[clever rune]

ill check it out

[vestal quiver]

Are you a native English speaker?

[clever rune]

that makes sense

yep, i am

doesnt help that nobody in my country speaks french too...

[vestal quiver]

Okay cool because English does something very similar, it's called do-support

[clever rune]

do-support?

[placid plover]

what

[vestal quiver]

In English, you also ask by inversion (I am smart -> Am I smart?) and this used to apply to every verb like if you open up a really old book, say the King James Bible, you can see that in Job 38:33 for example (Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?) where 'knowest thou' is just 'thou knowest' but inverted. In Modern English, however, inversion can only be done by modals and auxiliaries like could/would/have (You have killed her -> Have you killed her?) so for regular verbs, English adds a dummy do – which is a modal verb – so that we can invert.
Take the sentence, 'I work'. You can't just go, 'Work I?' you have to put a do in there so instead you'll go, 'Do I work?' which is very similar to est-ce que.

Je travaille -> C'est que je travaille -> Est-ce que je travaille ?
I work -> I do work -> Do I work?

[clever rune]

so just inverting the the statement to get the question?

[vestal quiver]

The difference is that where « est-ce que » is just inserted, do-support takes the onus of conjugation to that verb

[clever rune]

ahhh i see

[vestal quiver]

so for example in the sentence « Elle m'a donné de l'argent », we just add « est-ce que » and it'll all be good: « Est-ce qu'elle m'a donné de l'argent ? »

[clever rune]

i think i get it now

[vestal quiver]

but with English, the conjugation is focused on the do-support so when we have a sentence like, 'She gave me some money', the question form is, 'Did she give me some money?'

with the tense information in 'to give' being transferred 'to do'

[clever rune]

i see the similarities now

[vestal quiver]

I kinda brought this up because some English speakers get confused when it comes time to do « est-ce que » in the past tense

[clever rune]

french is actually quite similiar to english now that i look at it

[vestal quiver]

because I've seen people go, « Était-ce que je te donne de l'argent ? » or something like that

[clever rune]

i need to study more to see what wrong with it 😂

[vestal quiver]

you can't transform « est-ce que », it's fixed

[clever rune]

OHHH

ive learnt so much merci pour votre temp!

[vestal quiver]

present -> Do I work? [og sentence: I work]
past -> Did I work? [og sentence: I worked]
(the tense change happens to the do-support, the main verb becoming a bare infinitive, necessitating a change in the original sentence)

present -> Est-ce que je travaille ? [og sentence: Je travaille]
past -> Est-ce que j'ai travaillé ? [og sentence: J'ai travaillé]
(« est-ce que » is just inserted in front without any change to the original sentence)

[clever rune]

ahh i see

i still have alot to catch up on, have barely started on past tense

[vestal quiver]

trust me

est-ce que is a miracle

just slap it on at the beginning of the sentence that's it

[clever rune]

it does seem pretty easy

have got to practice more

are you native? @placid plover

[placid plover]

native what

[clever rune]

in french

[placid plover]

no

[vestal quiver]

Native francophones have blue usernames

[clever rune]

you seem like you know ALOT about the language

ohh i see

[placid plover]

i lesrnt it what csn i say

[vestal quiver]

Orange is beginner, yellow is intermediate, green is advanced

[clever rune]

youre not native either?

[vestal quiver]

No

[clever rune]

how long have you been learning?

[placid plover]

4 years

[clever rune]

shit i have to up my game

[placid plover]

its not a race

[vestal quiver]

red are reserved for moderators, light blue for tutors, and purple is rare af

[clever rune]

ahh i see

[placid plover]

not a game or a race take ur time

[clever rune]

oh yeah hopefully i can at least speak by the wnd of the year

[placid plover]

possible

but

dont work yourself up

beat yourself up for it

[placid plover]

where ru from bro

[clever rune]

haha thanks

singapore

[placid plover]

walao eh

[clever rune]

LMAO

YOU ALSO AH

[placid plover]

siao

[placid plover]

NO AH

HONG LONG LEH

[clever rune]

OH SHIT

HK

LOLLLLL

[placid plover]

yes ar

lmao

siao

[clever rune]

OH HARLOW

[placid plover]

harlow

[clever rune]

shit how you learn sia

[placid plover]

mandarin can?

[clever rune]

hk where got people speak french

[clever rune]

soso la

[placid plover]

easy leh, watch wahbanana

[placid plover]

why cannot

[clever rune]

LOL

[placid plover]

cantonese leh?

[clever rune]

only know chao cibai

[placid plover]

if cantonese can there is one concept whee canto is useful

[clever rune]

my mandrin also can speak and write ask me read damm cui

[placid plover]

its savoir 知, connaître 識

[placid plover]

lmao

sleep leh, late lor

singlish can is only cuz canto endings like lah leh lor

and occasional walao

[clever rune]

i only know how read he 😭

[clever rune]

haha yala pick up very fast one

[placid plover]

no worries leh

[placid plover]

big brain is it

[clever rune]

i wishhh

[clever rune]

now holidays shiok

[placid plover]

practice sia

i learnt french

it was difficult

[clever rune]

yeah need practice sia

[placid plover]

now i know french

italian can sia

portuguese so so la

[clever rune]

i see when i free i pop up in the voice chat

[placid plover]

dont pressure leh

[clever rune]

wah seh

[placid plover]

same same

[clever rune]

power sia

[placid plover]

no leh

[clever rune]

now stress end year going europ iw haolian to my family

LOL

[placid plover]

wa

go france is it

[clever rune]

how old are you

[placid plover]

19

[clever rune]

yeah france italy

need crash course

[placid plover]

italian need help let me know leh

i have crash course beginners italian

i made leh

[clever rune]

ohh

serious ah

[placid plover]

yes

u

?

[clever rune]

i think learn french edy then i start italian then maybe easy

[placid plover]

yes because my guide is in french

easier to explain leh

[clever rune]

i love pasta and pizza bellisimo!! 🤌🤌

[clever rune]

18

[placid plover]

mi piacciono la pasta e la pizza

[clever rune]

oh shit

[placid plover]

ouais

i can send sis

[clever rune]

i dont understand 😭