Est-que pour France!?

Question

Hi, I just want to go back with a little bit of a better knowledge for "Est-que" in French. I really never was properly explained.

I know my question words but can someone explain how Est-que works when asking a question and give me some examples for the question words, in French please.

All of this helps but what about when you say like Quand est ce que Qu'est ce que? Care to explain that.

Answer 1

"Est-ce que" is confusing because it's like an idiom where it can't be translated exactly into English. The phrase is used for questions and if it comes after a "question word" like quand or quel then it can be a little confusing. When I learned about these words, sometimes it helped for me to look at the three words as "is it that."

Quand est-ce que tu vas à l'ecole? would mean When 'is it that' you go to the school?

Qu'est-ce que tu manges? would mean What 'is it that' you eat?

Sometimes it doesn't translate exactly, but that's because it's a French expression and there is no English derived one.

Another way to look at it is that "Est-ce que" is like a question marker. In French, you can ask a question by raising the tone of a sentence like You eat some chicken (Tu manges du poulet) just as you could in English "You eat some chicken?" though it would be informal. If you wanted to be formal, you'd say "Do you eat some chicken?" whereas the French would say "Est-ce que tu manges du poulet?"

Just remember, you don't have to use the phrase for questions. You can always just invert the noun and verb. Good luck!

Answer 2

Est-ce-que (NOT est-que) is not translated into English. Instead, you put it before a statement which then turns it into a question. For example. "Tu vas bien," means "You're okay," but "Est-ce que tu vas bien?" means "Are you okay?" French native speakers don't use this much, except in the first person or for emphasis.

Answer 3

First of all, it's 'Est-ce que' (is it that...). It's a good way of phrasing a question because you don't have to invert the verb. For example:
Est-ce que vous etes anglais? Are you English?
Est-ce que tu vas souvent au cinéma? Do you often go to the cinema?
Est-ce que t'on peut fumer ici? Can we/one smoke here? (I put the 't' here because it's a bit messy to say 'est-ce qu'on)
And lastly; Est-ce qu'il y a une toilette? Is there a toilet?
I hope that helps!

Answer 4

Est-que doesn't exist....you actually mean est-ce que. Est-ce que means "is it that...?" literally....Est-ce que is used to begin a question. The word that usually follows this expression is a subject...like, you, I, he/she, or a thing...(je, tu, il, elle, on, etc...) If you wanted to ask WHAT you use est-ce que...like Do you eat alot? Est-ce que tu manges beaucoup? or....Do you like school....Est-ce que tu aimes l'ecole? Hope that helps.