Indirect Questions: si and Interrogative Words
Indirect Questions: si and Interrogative Words
Embedding a question inside a statement — 'I don't know whether...', 'I wonder where...' — needs its own connecting word in French, chosen based on whether the original question had a question word at all, much as English does.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
si fills the gap when there's no question word — just like English 'whether/if'
Je me demande si elle vient. (I wonder whether she's coming — si for yes/no questions)
I wonder whether she's coming.
si works exactly like English 'whether' or 'if' — it opens an embedded yes/no question when the original question had no question word. And both languages agree on something else important: neither French nor English keeps the question-formation machinery of the direct question inside the embedded clause. French drops est-ce que/inversion (no si est-ce qu'elle vient), and English drops do-support/inversion the same way ('Is she coming?' becomes 'I wonder whether she's coming', not 'I wonder whether is she coming') — both revert to plain statement word order. One spelling note: si elides to s' before il/ils (s'il vient, not si il vient) but never before elle/elles (si elle vient stays as it is).
Question words embed directly; qu'est-ce que becomes ce que
Je ne sais pas où il habite. (I don't know where he lives) / Je me demande ce que tu penses. (I wonder what you think — from Qu'est-ce que tu penses ?)
I don't know where he lives. / I wonder what you think.
Question words like où, quand, comment, pourquoi, and qui embed directly into the indirect question with no change of form, just as English 'where', 'when', 'how', 'why', and 'who' stay the same word whether the question is direct or embedded. The one irregular pair to memorize is a genuine asymmetry with English: qu'est-ce que ('what', as an object) becomes ce que when embedded, and qu'est-ce qui ('what', as a subject) becomes ce qui — French simply can't reuse qu'est-ce que/qui inside another clause, whereas English 'what' never changes shape at all between 'What do you think?' and 'I wonder what you think'.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| si (whether) | see | whether |
| Je me demande si... | zhuh muh duh-MAHND see | I wonder whether... |
| Je ne sais pas si... | zhuh nuh seh pah see | I don't know whether... |
| ce que | suh kuh | what (embedded, object) |
| ce qui | suh kee | what (embedded, subject) |
| Dis-moi où tu habites. | dee-mwah oo too ah-BEET | Tell me where you live. |
| Je me demande pourquoi il est parti. | zhuh muh duh-MAHND poor-KWAH eel eh par-TEE | I wonder why he left. |