Forming inverted questions in Le Présent, special cases: puis-je, ai-je, suis-je

Posted by Aurélie Drouard

In: Level A2, Questions & Interrogatives, Question/Interrogative

Questions: 9

Simple Yes/No Questions

The forms je peux, je vais, je suis, j'ai can be inverted but these forms are rarely used nowadays, as they're considered very formal and old-fashioned:

Notice that je peux becomes irregular in the inverted form puis-je, probably to ease pronunciation. This structure is very formal as we stated before, so would only be used in polite contexts: the nearest English equivalent would be May I?

Note also that although it's rare to invert Je + verb to make a question, it does happen with some verbs.

More Complex Questions

You can also use all of the question words like Comment, Quand etc. at the beginning with puis-je, ai-je and suis-je:

Q&A

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yellamaraju

Kwiziq community member

27 November 2016

4 replies

Ai-je assez d'argent ? Not why?

Inverted form of question. Is it for the purpose of pronunciation?

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Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

28 November 2016

28/11/16

Bonjour Yellamaraju ! Could you clarify your question, as I'm not sure what you're getting at :) Merci !

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yellamaraju

Kwiziq community member

28 November 2016

28/11/16

Bonjour Aurélie ! Sorry, the later part of the question didn't come out in the print. Ai-je assez d'argent ? And not why. Is it for the purpose of pronunciation. ends with vowel and starts with vowel as in .

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yellamaraju

Kwiziq community member

28 November 2016

28/11/16

Ai-j'assez as it is done J'ai

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Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

29 November 2016

29/11/16

I understand your question now :) You never use ellision on pronouns in inverted structures. The ellision is between the subject pronoun and the verb following, but in the case of inversion, the verb is before, so there won't be any "visual" ellision, even though you will pronounce [jassez], you will not write "j'assez". I hope that's helpful!

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Chris

Kwiziq community member

27 October 2016

1 reply

Missing exercises in this area?

It seems that I have only encountered exercises for "puis-je" and none for "suis-je" or "ai-je". Are there ones for the other cases? -- Chris.

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Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

4 November 2016

4/11/16

Bonjour Claus ! Indeed, we've focused the testing in that lesson on the more commonly used form "puis-je" which is also the trickiest one as it changes. However, I agree that we should also have questions on the other forms, and I've now added some to this lesson. Merci beaucoup et à bientôt !

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Joakim

Kwiziq community member

24 March 2016

1 reply

Informal versions

If the questions in this lesson sound formal and old-fashioned, what are the less formal modern equivalents? Perhaps you could add them to the lesson?

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Laura

Kwiziq language super star

26 March 2016

26/03/16

Bonjour Joakim, There are three non-formal ways to ask questions in French: https://french.kwiziq.com/my-languages/french/view/501

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