In English, we often speak about the five Ws when teaching English language learners: who, what, where, when, and why. These words are added on to the beginning of a sentence in English to ask questions (in English, you can also change word order to ask a question). In French, asking a question is different. While, of course, the French language has its own version of the five Ws (qui, quoi, où, quand, and pourquoi), you often don’t even need to use these interrogative words.

In French, you can ask a question (in spoken French) using the following three techniques (used mostly if you are not using one of these question words):

1.Changing intonation

2. Adding “est-ce que” to a non-interrogative sentence

3. Inversion

Changing intonation is, of course, the easiest way for non-native French speakers to ask a question–simply because you don’t need to add any word to a regular sentence and just need to change the tone of your voice! Make sure that your voice rises at the end of the sentence, which will change your sentence from being declarative to interrogative. For example, if you would like to say “Is she with you?” you can actually use the same syntax as “She is with you.” In French, this would be: “elle est avec toi” (she is with you). If you simply lift your voice toward the end of the sentence, it becomes “Elle est avec toi?” (Is she with you?”) Although these are the same exact words in the same order, this now is an interrogative sentence.

The second easiest way to ask a question in French is by adding “est-ce que” to your declarative sentence. This means something like “is it” in English. If you need a question word at the beginning of your sentence, use that first (for example, if you need to use the word qui for “who” or “what”). Then, add “est-ce que” to the middle of your sentence. Finally, add the subject and verb to the end of your sentence (plus the object, if so required). For example, you might want to say “What did you do?” In this case, since the sentence begins with “what” you need to use the interrogative word qui (which can mean, in this case, either “who” or “what”): Que+est-ce que+tu (subject)+as fait (verb in past tense). Whenever que comes before est-ce que you combine them into qu’est-ce que. Thus, the correct interrogative sentence would be: Qu’est-ce que tu as fait? (What did you do?)

The third way to ask a question in French is a bit harder. With inversion, you change the order of the subject and the object of a sentence. Let’s say you want to say: “Do you want to come with us?” You can use the previous two techniques: 1. Tu veux venir avec nous? (stressing the end of the sentence) or 2.Est-ce que tu veux venir avec nous? However, you can also change the order of the subject and the verb: Veux-tu venir avec nous? Inversion is typically more formal than these other interrogative forms, but it can be tricky sometimes to figure out the subject and verb of a sentence and its order. On top of this, sometimes verb forms change when they are used at the beginning of interrogative sentences (peux-je, for example, is incorrect; instead, puis-je is the correct way to say “can/may I?”).

With so many ways to form an interrogative sentences in French, you can choose the one that works best for you. I’ve noticed that many English speakers use “est-ce que” to build a question in spoken French–and that is perfectly fine! Which way would be easiest for you?