#.cheetooos

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olive driftBOT
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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.

wheat rapids
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"est-ce que" is a tool you can use to form questions.
For yes/no questions, it's used at the start of the sentence.
ex: est-ce que tu viens ? (are you coming?)
-# same meaning as "tu viens ?" and "viens-tu ?" but different formality
If you are using an interrogative adverb (que, où, pourquoi, comment, quand, etc), it goes after that adverb
ex: quand est-ce que tu viens ? (when are you coming?)
-# same meaning as "tu viens quand ?" and "quand viens-tu ?" but different formality
using "est-ce que" is never mandatory

warped jetty
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Ohhh okay thank you! But what's the difference between using it or not?

wheat rapids
# warped jetty Ohhh okay thank you! But what's the difference between using it or not?

two things.
one is making clear your sentence is a question. Because casual French doesn't use inversion, for a lot of sentences the difference between it being a question or not is simply intonation. Stamping "est-ce que" on top makes it clear.
it also comes off as less informal. Inversion is really formal and quite unnatural to use in your everyday life, but sometimes you wanna be just a little more civil. "est-ce que" is technically inversion, but in practice it's more like a tool to be more polite while avoiding using the overly formal inversion

north valve
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It's a bit like how in english instead of inverting most verbs, we just add "do" and do the inversion with it instead

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Do you like coffee? Instead of Like you coffee? (Or the informal "you like coffee?")

warped jetty