1. Interrogative Words
D’Accord 1 Leçon 4A.2

2. Point de départ
In Leçon 2A, you learned four ways to formulate yes or no questions in French. However, many questions seek information that can’t be provided by a simple yes or no answer.
Use these words with est-ce que or inversion.

3. Quel(le)(s) agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies.

4. Although quand. and à quelle heure. can be translated as when
Although quand? and à quelle heure? can be translated as when?, in English, they are not interchangeable. Use quand to talk about a day or date, and à quelle heure to talk about a particular time of day.

5. Another way to formulate questions with most interrogative words is by placing them after a verb. This kind of formulation is very informal but very common.
Note that quoi? (what?) must immediately follow a preposition in order to be used with est-ce que or inversion. If no preposition is necessary, place quoi after the verb.

6. To answer a question formulated with pourquoi, use parce que/qu’ (because).
It’s impolite to use Quoi? to indicate that you don’t understand what’s being said. Use Comment? or Pardon? instead.
Note that when qui? is used as a subject, the verb that follows is always singular.

7. Qu’est-ce que tu regardes? Je regarde un match de tennis.
Note the use of the interrogative expression qu’est-ce que (what) in the questions below.
Qu’est-ce que tu regardes? Je regarde un match de tennis.
Qu’est-ce qu’Alice mange? Elle mange une pizza.
To ask what people are doing, use the following construction:
qu’est-ce que/qu’
subject
Verb
Qu’est-ce que tu
regardes?
Qu’est-ce qu’
elle
mange?