Il prend le thé avec un croissant ?

Questions & Answers about Il prend le thé avec un croissant ?

Why is there no "est-ce que" or flipped word order to make this a question?
In everyday spoken French, you can turn a regular statement (Il prend le thé avec un croissant) into a yes/no question simply by raising the pitch of your voice at the end. It is the most common and casual way to ask a question, exactly like saying "He is having tea?" in English.
Why use prend (takes) instead of a French word for "having"?
The verb prendre literally means "to take", but it is the standard verb the French use for having food and drinks. So, while we say "having tea" or "eating a croissant" in English, in French you always "take" them.
Why is it le thé (the tea) instead of just thé or du thé?
In French, nouns almost always need a small word (an article) before them, so you cannot just say thé. While du thé (some tea) would also be perfectly correct here, using le thé (the tea) often refers to tea in a general sense, or specifically to the traditional afternoon snack of "tea time".
Why is there a space before the question mark?
It is a strict rule in French typing and punctuation! For any punctuation mark that is drawn with two distinct parts (like ?, !, :, and ;), you must always leave a space before it.

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