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Est-ce que le billet est sur la table ?

Est-ce que le billet est sur la table ?
Is the ticket on the table?
From Lesson 21:Yes/no questions with "Est-ce que" (Est-ce que tu parles ?)·French

Questions & Answers about Est-ce que le billet est sur la table ?

Why does the sentence start with Est-ce que instead of just Est?
In French, you usually don't just swap the verb and subject to ask a question like you do in English ('Is the ticket...?'). Instead, a very common way to ask a yes/no question is to take a normal statement like le billet est sur la table and simply put the phrase est-ce que at the very beginning.
What does est-ce que literally mean?
It literally translates to 'is it that'. So this sentence is technically asking, 'Is it that the ticket is on the table?'. However, you shouldn't overthink the literal meaning. In everyday French, est-ce que just acts like a spoken question mark that lets the listener know a yes/no question is coming.
Why is the word est used twice in this sentence?
The first est is a built-in part of the question phrase est-ce que. The second est is the actual main verb of your sentence, meaning 'is' (as in 'the ticket is'). They are the exact same word from the verb être (to be), but they are doing two different jobs in this sentence!
Is there a trick to remembering that it is le billet and la table?
French noun genders mostly have to be memorized, but the ends of the words often give you a great clue! Words ending in -et (like billet) are almost always masculine, so they take le. Words ending in -able (like table) are usually feminine, so they take la.

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