Question sentence in french. Needs review.

[Zhongjie Fan]

I'm practising question sentence in french. I'm wondering if the sentences with star mark are correct. Merci beaucoup..

 

Who went dance with Julie last night?

Julie est allée danser avec qui, hier soir?
Avec qui est-ce que Julie est allée danser, hier soir?
Avec qui est allée danser Julie, hier soir?
*Avec qui Julie est-elle allée danser, hier soir?

What did Julie dance last night?

Julie a dansé quoi hier soir?
Qu'est-ce que Julie a dansé hier soir?
*Qu'a-t-elle dansé Julie hier soir?

[Erwan]

The first mark sentence is right but not the second one.

You should say Qu'est-ce que Julie a dansé hier soir? or, after correcting your propositon Qu'a dansé Julie hier soir?

But sometimes you could hear your proposition in a conversation.

[Zhongjie Fan]

Je compris. Merci beaucoup...

[Neil Coffey]

Just an additional note to hopefully explain the reasons by Erwan's prefernce (Erwan -- tell me if you think any of what I'm about to say isn't true!)

 

In most cases of "partial interrogation" (so where the question doesn't anticipate a yes-no answer and instead there's a question word like "Comment", "Où" etc), you can use the "complex" type of inversion as you have it. So you can say either "Combien coûte ce livre?" or "Combien ce livre coûte-t-il?" etc. (Main cases where you can't are where there's a direct object that is a noun.)

 

However, it turns out that in formal usage, the "simple" type of inversion is preferred with "Que". So people would tend to say "Que font les enfants?" rather than "?Que les enfants font-ils?.

 

Then, repeating the subject after the verb in a so-called "cleft" sentence is generally possible, but characteristic of informal speech. You can do this with most forms of questions, e.g.:

 

  Ils font quoi, les enfants?

  Qu'est-ce qu'ils font, les enfants? [Update: Erwan actually suggests that this isn't so common.]

 

However, inversion questions are slightly more formal in style. So there's a slight clash of formality in using inversion, while at the same time repeating the subject after the verb. That's possibly why "Qu'a-t-elle dansé, Julie, hier soir?" doesn't sound quite so natural.

[Erwan]

I'm agree with you.

I just want to add something of what you say. In yours exemples with les enfants, you'll never hear/read the second one.

In the exemple with Julie the commas are essential.

 

[Zhongjie Fan]

That means "Qu'a-t-elle dansé, Julie, hier soir?" is correct. Just rarely heard in daily life. Right?

Actually, in my text book (Reflets), both "Ils font quoi" and "Qu'est-ce qu'ils font" appear several times, as I recall. But "Qu'a-t-elle dansé" is really awkward (I made it by taking grammar text book as reference :)).  Let me know if my understanding is wrong.

Merci vous tous. Merci.

[Erwan]

There are several levels of language in your example :

 - Ils font quoi ? : In my opinion, it's the worst way to ask but it's the most popular in daily life.

 - Qu'est-ce qu'ils font? : You'll often hear that too. But in literature, the twice que are not appreciated

- Que font-ils? : The most "elegant" way.

 

If we transpose that with the second example, we 'll get :

- Elle a dansé quoi?

- Qu'est-ce qu'elle a dansé?

-Qu'a-t-elle dansé?

[Zhongjie Fan]

Je vous remercie.