Learn French: Est-ce que nous ajoutons du sucre ?

In English, we can just ask "Do we add sugar?" but in French, nouns almost always need a little word (an article) in front of them. Because sugar is a "mass noun" (an uncountable substance or food), we use a partitive article to represent "some" sugar.

Where does the word du come from?

The partitive article for masculine words is created by combining de (meaning "of" or "some") and le (the masculine word for "the"). In French, de and le are never written next to each other; they always merge to become du. Since sucre is masculine, we use du.

Is the "s" at the end of nous pronounced in this sentence?

Yes! Normally, the "s" at the end of nous is completely silent. However, because the very next word (ajoutons) starts with a vowel, you pronounce the "s" like a "z" to smoothly link the two words together. This spoken link is called a liaison.

What is Est-ce que doing at the beginning of the sentence?

Est-ce que literally translates to "Is it that". Placing it at the beginning of a regular sentence is the most standard way to turn it into a yes/no question in French. If you took it away, you would just have the statement Nous ajoutons du sucre (We add some sugar).