There are three ways that are the most common for framing questions: The first and simplest way is to raise the voice at the end of the sentence, changing the period to a question mark. Normal, declarative sentences follow a pattern of not dropping the voice until the end of the sentence when the voice makes a definite dip down. A French speaker would never leave the listener in doubt by letting his or her voice remain at the same level at the end of the sentence. There are some exceptions to learn but, for the moment, always drop the voice at the end of a declarative sentence—not before! Copy the inflection of the native speakers that you hear on your CDs and in passages that have been recorded for you on the course Web site.

The second way is to put the question phrase est-ce que in front of the sentence. The phrase means "is it that..." and serves to change a statement into a question. Est-ce que vous aimez le film? (Is it that you like the film?) This simple device works well!

The third way is inversion, that is, switching the order of the subject pronoun and the verb. This is the method most used by French speakers. It is the accepted way of marking the difference between a statement and a question. In place of saying Tu aimes le film? or Est-ce que tu aimes le film? a French person would probably say Aimes-tu le film? There are several things you must remember when you use inversion.

1. It is preferable not to use it with the first-person singular (je). Use: Est-ce que je… (We do hear and see some exceptions, notably suis-je and ai-je, used in passé composé.)
2. There must be a hyphen between the verb and the pronoun. Aimez-vous le film?
3. It is often necessary to insert the letter t to avoid vowels coming together. Examples: Aime-t-il le film? is pronounceable. Aime-il is not. This will happen with -er verbs when inverting il or elle. Parle-t-elle espagnol? Mange-t-il le gâteau? Déteste-t-on le film?

Notice that it's not necessary to add a t for the plural; the usually silent t of -ent simply comes to life and is pronounced. Parlent-ils allemand? Chantent-elles bien?

4. When the subject is a noun, it's necessary to use both the noun and a pronoun.

Examples:
Marie aime-t-elle le film?
Pierre chante-t-il bien?
Ton ami parle-t-il chinois?

Inversion is also used in other ways. One example is inversion with a direct quotation: «J'adore mon pays» dit-il. ("I love my country," he says). French is punctuated differently than English.

An expression with a question component is: N'est-ce pas? Isn't that so? This is used at the end of a statement and implies that the speaker expects agreement, an affirmative response to that statement.

Bonne chance!