montrays

[main flame]

Please be patient

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

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

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.

[hollow flame]

'Été' in English is a lot closer to 'been':

Il a été
He has been
I can't think of a valid construction where you could start a sentence with it, but I won't claim it's impossible.

Other than my first sentence.

[vernal stream]

I'm not sure if this is you asking me for an example, but ill proceed even if I'm wrong.

For example: Was John Doe cleaning yesterday?

how would that be said in french

[shut fiber]

French has three ways of asking a question, inversion (formal), est-ce que (neutral), and intonation (informal).
(1) Inversion [formal]: You invert the verb and the subject, inserting a -t- if it's in the third person singular and the ending is a vowel and/or repeating the subject if it's a noun.
Le professeur a raison ===> Le professeur a-t-il raison ?
(2) Est-ce que [neutral]: You add « est-ce que » before the subject.
Le professeur a raison ===> Est-ce que le professeur a raison ?
(3) Intonation [informal]: You just repeat the sentence with a rising intonation.
Le professeur a raison ===> Le professeur a raison ?

You can refer to this article for more details.

The sentence is « John Doe faisait le ménage hier. »
I'll leave it to you how to do it, just as an exercise.

[vernal stream]

thank you this cleared up a lot!

[shut fiber]

You should learn how the tenses compare because 'was/were + X-ing' isn't a thing in French; the past progressive in English is the imparfait in French

'It was raining yesterday when I left home.'
« Il pleuvait hier quand je suis sorti de chez moi. »