French guides · Asking questions
French question words: nine words unlock every question.
The French question words are qui (who), que and quoi (what), où (where), quand (when), pourquoi (why), comment (how), combien (how much or how many) and quel (which). Nine words. Below you’ll find how each one sounds, and then the three sentence patterns that turn a bare question word into a real question — from the version you’ll hear in a café to the one you’d write in a letter.
The nine question words, at a glance
| French | Say it | English | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| qui | KEE | who | Qui est-ce ? — who is that? |
| que | KUH | what | Que fais-tu ? — what are you doing? |
| quoi | KWAH | what — after a preposition, or alone | Tu fais quoi ? / C’est quoi ? |
| où | OO | where | Où est la gare ? — where is the station? |
| quand | KAHN | when | Quand est-ce que tu pars ? — when are you leaving? |
| pourquoi | poor-KWAH | why | Pourquoi pas ? — why not? |
| comment | koh-MAHN | how | Comment ça marche ? — how does it work? |
| combien | kohm-BYAN | how much / how many | Ça coûte combien ? — how much does it cost? |
| quel / quelle / quels / quelles | KELL | which, what — before a noun | Quelle heure est-il ? — what time is it? |
One spelling to guard carefully: où (where) carries an accent. Without it, ou means "or" — a different word entirely. They sound identical, so the accent is the only thing telling your reader which one you meant.
Three ways to build the same question
Here is the thing nobody tells beginners: French gives you three separate machines for building a question, and they all produce the same meaning. Which one you pick says something about you — how casual you are being, whether you’re speaking or writing — not about what you’re asking. Watch all three do the same job with "Where do you live?"
1. Intonation — just say it. Tu habites où ? Leave the words in ordinary statement order, drop the question word on the end, and let your voice rise. That’s the entire technique. It is what you’ll actually hear in kitchens, cafés and text messages, and it’s the easiest to produce under pressure because you don’t have to rearrange anything.
2. Est-ce que — the everyday all-rounder. Où est-ce que tu habites ? Est-ce que (pronounced ess-kuh, as one blurred word) is a flag you plant in front of a statement to turn it into a question. Nothing else moves: question word, then est-ce que, then the statement exactly as it was. It works with every word in the table above, it never sounds wrong, and it is never too formal or too casual. If you only take one pattern from this page, take this one.
3. Inversion — formal and written. Où habites-tu ? Here the verb and the subject trade places and get stitched together with a hyphen. This is the version textbooks teach first, and the version French people use least in conversation.
So, honestly: real spoken French runs on the first two. Inversion belongs to writing, to formal situations, and to a handful of set phrases that froze in that shape long ago and are used by everyone — Comment allez-vous ?, Quelle heure est-il ?, Quel âge as-tu ? Learn those as whole phrases, and build everything else with est-ce que until it feels automatic.
Qu’est-ce que c’est ? looks like four words and a punctuation accident. It is simply What is that? — and it is said as one sound: kess-kuh SAY. Don’t take it apart, don’t translate the pieces, just learn the noise. It’s the single most useful question a beginner can carry around a French-speaking country.
Que, quoi and quel
Que and quoi both mean "what". They are the same idea in two coats, and the choice is about position, not meaning.
Que goes before the verb: Que veux-tu ? (what do you want?), Que fais-tu ? (what are you doing?).
Quoi goes after a preposition, or stands alone — usually at the end of a casual question: Tu veux quoi ? (same question, said the way people speak), Avec quoi ? (with what?), C’est quoi ? (what is it?). A useful shortcut: if the word would land at the end of the sentence or right after a small word like à, de or avec, it’s quoi.
Quel is a different animal. It behaves like an adjective, which means it changes shape to match the noun that follows it — and it is the one you reach for when a noun comes next.
| Form | Goes with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| quel | masculine, one thing | quel jour — which day |
| quelle | feminine, one thing | quelle heure — what time |
| quels | masculine, several | quels livres — which books |
| quelles | feminine, several | quelles couleurs — which colours |
All four are pronounced the same way — KELL. The endings are for the page, not for the ear, which is a small mercy while you’re learning to speak.
Hear them asked at learner speed
Question words are one of those topics where reading gets you halfway and listening gets you the rest. Est-ce que in particular never sounds the way it looks on paper, and you’ll only trust that once you’ve heard it a few dozen times.
The Cocoon French video How to Ask Questions in French takes these patterns slowly, in a story you can follow without translating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsX7I9RxUcI
There are more free lessons on the channel at youtube.com/@cocoonfrench.
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Questions about questions.
The bits learners actually get stuck on.