French grammar: les questions fermées et ouvertes

What this grammar point covers

In French, closed questions (les questions fermées) are questions that can be answered with 'yes' or 'no'. Open questions (les questions ouvertes) ask for more information and cannot be answered with just 'yes' or 'no'.

When to use it

Use closed questions when you want a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. Use open questions when you want more details, such as a place, a reason, or an explanation.

Key forms

• Pour une question fermée : « Est-ce que tu as un chien ? »
• Pour une question ouverte : « Où habites-tu ? », « Pourquoi viens-tu ? », « Comment ça va ? »

Examples

Tips

• For closed questions, you can use 'est-ce que', invert the subject and verb, or just use a rising intonation.
• For open questions, start with a question word like 'où', 'quand', 'pourquoi', 'comment', 'qui', 'que/quoi'.
• Don't forget the hyphen when inverting the subject and verb (e.g., 'Aimes-tu...?').

Exceptions and edge cases

• With 'qui' (who) as the subject, you don't invert the verb: 'Qui vient ?'
• Some question words change form depending on their position (e.g., 'que' becomes 'qu’' before a vowel).