Inversion

What do you call it when you turn the subject pronoun and verb around to make a question? Inversion of course! Note that it only works for subject pronouns. You can't (or wouldn't) ask, "Est-Mme. Dupont à la maison?". You would have to ask instead, "Mme. Dupont, est-elle à la maison?". Also notice that the hyphen must go between the subject prounoun and verb (hyphen in French is trait d'union).

The other way to ask a question (preceding the subject and verb with est-ce que) is actually itself an inversion of c'est. For some reason, you wouldn't ask, "Sont-ce des élèves?", but you can ask, "Est-ce des élèves?". Guess "Sont-ce" doesn't sound right to French ears. If you want to use "Ce sont" you have to precede it with est-ce que or make your voice go up at the end of the question.

HOMEWORK (for Thurs. 1/15/09)

- Study Unit 3 Vocab Words

- Review Conjugaison for Etre, Faire and regular -er verbs

- Study Practice Test (THE REAL TEST IS TOMORROW, THURSDAY (1/15)