#1: Making questions with "est-ce que"
Confusing stuffs for Lauren
Est-ce que….
It always confused me.
They say it does not have any meaning to it, whilst saying, "oh, actually it has a meaning”. So I asked, “what is it?” They answered, “Actually, it does not have a meaning sorry.. But! You can use it! Wait, wait, wait.. only for questions!”
I said to myself, ‘I am not buying it'.
First of all, it is a combination of words, not a single word. Plus, it sounds weird. Second, it seems like it has a meaning in itself ‘is-it that’ at the same time the phrase does not make sense. Third, they explain that they use ‘est-ce que’ to form ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, whilst I think how can someone answer a question with only ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but at the same time it makes sense?
I tried to avoid using it, actually it is more accurate that I was being stubborn not using them in my sentence. But later on as I am learning more I heard myself “est-ce que…”… god damn it I used it. Remarkable.
Just a heads up, I'm not a professional teacher, but rather another learner. The information I share might not be entirely accurate.
Okay, here are “some” things that I learnt and how I understand about ‘Est-ce que’, c’est parti.
1. Est-ce que. you can use to form a question, however not necessary.
Alors.
One way making a question sentence is writing normal sentence exactly the same and adding the ‘question mark’ and ‘question tone’.
For example:
Tu aimes ton chat. (normal sentence) → Tu aimes ton chat? (question sentence)
It does make sense perfectly right? Fortunately you can use this way forever.
However, if you want to spice things up, you can add, ‘est-ce que‘. It adds a little bit of politeness, not too direct, and a little bit more of formality into it - according to my language learning app. You add them in front of the sentence.
Encore une fois:
Tu aimes ton chat. (normal sentence) → Tu aimes ton chat? (question sentence) → Est-ce que tu aimes ton chat? (question sentence)
So from this question if you want to answer, yes it will be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer AND you will give the reason afterwards or not.
And of course Tu aimes ton chat? (question sentence) → Est-ce que tu aimes ton chat? (question sentence) their meaning’s EXACTLY the same!!!
2. I want to be more precise with my question!!
Okay, I understand that you want to use the 5w1h when you are asking questions.
In this case as well, you can add “est-ce que” in the sentence and that DOES NOT CHANGE THE MEANING AT ALL!
Par exemple:
Où tu vas? = Où est-ce que tu vas?
Pourquoi vous aimez ton chat? = Pourquoi est-ce que vous aimez ton chat?
Comment vous vous appelez? = Comment est-ce que vous vous appelez?
Quand il ouvre? = Quand est-ce que il ouvre?
Où tu veux aller? = Où est-ce que tu veux aller?
They are the same, just remember that the question words comes very front of the sentence and the ‘est-ce que’ after that.
Well here, even though you used ‘est-ce que’ in the sentence you cannot just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. That was why I got confused, because when I learned “est-ce que” and books taught me it’s used for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, but with these kind of sentences and I could not answer just that!
The common factor is there are question words - the 5w1h that you love - in the sentences above, and that’s why you cannot answer only with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but have to explain even though there is ‘est-ce que’.
For instance:
Jean: Où est-ce que tu veux aller?
Lauren: Oui.
Jean: ???
So here we are.
This is what I have demystified “est-ce que” a little bit. I hope it helped you. If not, yeah sorry still you are in the midst of the chaos of the strange sounding word of ‘est-ce que’.
Here are some questions for you:
Lauren: Est-ce que cet article vous a aidé ?
Readers: ‘Oui’ ou ‘non’
Lauren: Comment est-ce que cet article vous a aidé?
Readers: Do you think you can use just ‘oui’ ou ‘non’ or have to come up with something else?
Can you spot the difference between these two example dialogues?
Can you put ‘est-ce que’ in the right place?
If you put ‘est-ce que’ do you know how the order of the sentence should be after the phrase?
Can you understand its meaning?
Can you understand that the meaning of the sentence does not change even though you put ‘est-ce que’ or not?
Do you want to use ‘est-ce que’?
Hello Lauren ! C'est génial de voir les questions que vous vous posez en apprenant le Français. C'est vraiment interessant à lire pour une française native.👏
I love when even native speakers aren't sure why they're saying something! This is one of these structures you can't really understand until you've heard it a thousand times.
It does hold more meaning than you might think at first. First, it prompts that you're going to ask a question. It also feels a bit less direct, which might feel more appropriate for certain settings.
For example, if you're asking in a shop "do you have bread?", "vous avez du pain ?" would sound a little bit direct and unnatural, putting the emphasis on "vous" or "you". I would usually say "Est-ce que vous avez du pain ?".
Keep listening and you might start hearing it! Have fun learning French. 😊