Learn French: Pourquoi est-ce que tu sors ton passeport du sac ? - Why are you taking your passport out of the bag?

Pourquoi est-ce que tu sors ton passeport du sac ?

Why are you taking your passport out of the bag?

Breakdown of Pourquoi est-ce que tu sors ton passeport du sac ?

you (informal singular)

le sac

the bag

est-ce que

is it that / do / does (question marker)

le passeport

the passport

Questions & Answers about Pourquoi est-ce que tu sors ton passeport du sac ?

I thought sortir meant to go out. Why does it mean taking out here?

You are exactly right! Usually, sortir means to go out, like going out with friends. But when you use it with an object, meaning you are doing the action to a specific thing like ton passeport, it changes to mean taking that thing out.

How does the verb sortir change for other people?

Sortir is an irregular verb. For the singular pronouns, it drops the t from the dictionary form: je sors, tu sors, il/elle sort. The plural forms keep the t: nous sortons, vous sortez, ils/elles sortent.

Why is it du sac instead of de le sac?

In French, the preposition de, which means from or of, and the masculine word le, meaning the, always combine into the single word du. Since bag is masculine (le sac), from the bag must become du sac.

Could I ask this without using est-ce que?

Yes! In casual spoken French, it is very common to drop it and just ask Pourquoi tu sors ton passeport du sac ?. Adding est-ce que after a question word like Pourquoi just makes the sentence a bit more standard and polite.