Dash in the questions
There are several ways to ask questions in French. The most familiar one is to ask the question on the model subject + verb + complement + ?. The intonation of the voice then determines whether it is a question.
Another form, which is more sustained, consists of prefixing the verb with est-ce que + subject + verb + complement + ?.
Finally, the most sustained form is that of subject inversion. A hyphen appears between the verb and the subject, which is then found to the right of the verb: verb + hyphen + subject + complement + ?. For sound reasons, it is possible that a hyphen appears with the third person singular. Similarly, a grave accent may appear in the present tense of the indicative when the verb is ended by an e. This form is the subject of a special grammar section because it raises so many questions.
- Tu viendras ?
- Est-ce que tu viendras ?
- Viendras-tu ?
- Viendra-t-il ?
- Puisse-t-il venir ?
- Puissè-je venir ? (new spelling)
- Puissé-je venir ? (former spelling)
We notice that for sound reasons, a t appears when the subject is inverted in the third person with him, her, them and them. This occurs in all cases except in front of a t or a d. Indeed, even if we have a d, we have a weakening of the pronunciation and we pronounce it as a t. We note the case of convincing, which ends with a c, needs a t when inverting the subject. We notice the hyphen between each word.
- convainc-t-il ?
- prend-il ?
- cueille-t-il ?
- peut-il ?