Interrogatives (Question Words)
Interrogatives are words which signal that a question is being asked.
There are three main forms in French that allow you to do this: interrogative
Determiners, interrogative Pronouns and interrogative Adverbs.
Determiners
Because they have to agree with the noun in number and gender, there
are four forms to ask which? or what?:
quel, quels, quelle, quelles
On ne sait pas pour quelles
raisons les serpents ont perdu leurs pattes.
for what reasons
Quel autre lien aurait-il
pu concevoir?
What other link could he have thought of?
Quelle théorie
devrait-on choisir?
Which theory should we choose?
Note that the interrogative may be separated from the noun it accompanies
by the verb être:
On ne sait pas quelles
ont été ces raisons.
We don't know what these reasons were
Pronouns
These pose no particular difficulty. Forms are
qui? que? où?
lequel?
who? what? where? which?
There are also compound forms:
qu'est-ce qui?
qu'est-ce que?
qu'est-ce que c'est que?
All these are rendered as what in English.
Qu'est-ce qu'elle dit?
What does she say?
Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?
What's that?
Adverbs
Pourquoi? Où? Quand? Comment? Combien?
Why? Where? When? How? How much?
Pourquoi le nier?
Why deny it?
Quand arrivera-t-on sur Mars?
When will we get to Mars?
More Examples:
Qui est là?
Who's there?
Que voulez-vous?
What do you expect? or What do you want?
Lequel est à préférer?
Which one is to be preferred?
Qu'est-ce qui l'en empêche?
What's stopping him/her (from doing it)?
Exercises
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