--- title: Questions and simple sentences — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Questions and simple sentences», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The easiest French question is an ordinary sentence with your voice going up at the end like a little hill: "Tu as un chien ?" - Do you have --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Questions and simple sentences # Questions and simple sentences Lesson 30 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/0/) — The easiest French question is an ordinary sentence with your voice going up at the end like a little hill: "Tu as un chien ?" - Do you have a dog? - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/1/) — Another easy way is to put est-ce que, said "ess-kuh", at the front of a sentence: "Est-ce que tu aimes les chats ?" - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/2/) — Then there are the question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), comment (how), pourquoi (why) and combien (how many) - with pourquoi always answered by parce que (because). - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/3/) — Picture a beach in Brittany: you point at a crab and ask "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?", a French kid says "C'est un crabe !", and then "Tu as quel âge ?" - "J'ai dix ans, et toi ?" - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/5/) — The easiest question is a normal sentence with the voice rising at the end: Tu as un chien ? - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/6/) — Est-ce que at the start turns a sentence into a yes or no question; it sounds "ess-kuh". - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/8/) — The same question can be asked in several correct ways: Tu habites où ?, Où est-ce que tu habites ?, Où habites-tu ? (the last is more formal). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/9/) — Tu as quel âge ? means "How old are you?"; âge is masculine, so it is quel, not quelle; heure (hour) is feminine, so it is Quelle heure est-il ? (What time is it?). - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/10/) — Ne goes before the verb and pas after it: je n'aime pas, il n'est pas là. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/11/) — Combien de + plural noun means "how many": combien de frères, combien de chats. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/12/) — Question words: qui (who), quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), comment (how), pourquoi (why), combien (how many). - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/13/) — Pourquoi ? (why?) is answered with parce que (because): Parce que c'est génial ! - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/14/) — Comment s'appelle ton chien ? means "What is your dog called?"; the answer is Il s'appelle... or Elle s'appelle... - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/30-questions-and-simple-sentences/15/) — People in Quebec speak French but are Canadian, so Tu viens d'où ? (Where are you from?) is safer than guessing. - ← previous: [Avoir: to have](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/29-avoir-to-have/) - next →: [Songs and rhymes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/31-songs-and-rhymes/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)