Learn French: Elles entendent qui dans la maison ?

Elles entendent qui dans la maison ?

Who do they hear in the house?

Breakdown of Elles entendent qui dans la maison ?

Questions & Answers about Elles entendent qui dans la maison ?

Why is qui in the middle of the sentence instead of at the beginning?

In everyday spoken French, it is very common to ask questions by keeping the normal statement word order. You simply place the question word (like qui, meaning "who") exactly where the answer would go. It is literally structured as "They hear whom in the house?".

Does qui change if it means "whom" instead of "who"?

No, qui stays exactly the same whether it is the subject doing the action ("who") or the object receiving the action ("whom"). Here, it acts as the object because they are hearing someone.

How do you pronounce entendent? Do I say the "-ent" at the end?

You do not pronounce the -ent ending at all. In French, the -ent ending for third-person plural verbs (verbs used with "they") is completely silent. You just pronounce the base of the word, which sounds roughly like "on-tond".

Since Elles ends in an "s" and entendent starts with a vowel, do I connect the sounds?

Yes! This is called a liaison. The usually silent "s" at the end of Elles connects to the first vowel in entendent, creating a "z" sound. When spoken, it blends together to sound like "ell-zon-tond".

Entendent looks like "attend" or "intend" in English. Are they related?