Learn French: Pourquoi est-ce que vous ne répondez pas ?

Pourquoi est-ce que vous ne répondez pas ?

Why are you not answering?

Breakdown of Pourquoi est-ce que vous ne répondez pas ?

vous

you (plural/formal)

not (used before the verb)

pas

not (used after the verb)

est-ce que

is it that / do / does (question marker)

Questions & Answers about Pourquoi est-ce que vous ne répondez pas ?

How do we get répondez from the dictionary verb répondre?

Répondre is a regular -re verb. To conjugate it for vous (you), you drop the -re ending from the infinitive to get the stem (répond-) and then add the vous ending, which is -ez. This gives us vous répondez.

The English translation says "are not answering", but there is no verb for "are" in the French sentence. Why?

In French, the present tense covers both simple actions ("you answer") and ongoing actions ("you are answering"). You do not use the verb être (to be) to say what someone is currently doing. Vous répondez handles both meanings all by itself.

Where do we put ne and pas in this kind of question?

Just like in a normal statement, ne and pas act like a sandwich around the conjugated verb. The question phrase est-ce que doesn't change this rule. So the negative part stays together as vous ne répondez pas, placed right after est-ce que.

What exactly does est-ce que do after pourquoi?