Vous avez vu mon petit chien ?

Questions & Answers about Vous avez vu mon petit chien ?

How do I know that vu means "seen"?
Vu is the irregular past participle of the verb voir (to see). In the passé composé (the most common past tense), you combine the helping verb avoir (here, avez) with this past participle to say "have seen" or "saw". It's one of the most important irregular verbs to memorize!
The English translation says "Did you see", but doesn't vous avez vu literally mean "you have seen"?
Yes, exactly! French doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English helping word "did" for past tense questions. Instead, the French passé composé is used for both "you saw" (or "did you see") and "you have seen".
Why is there no est-ce que or flipped word order to make this a question?
In spoken, everyday French, it is very common to ask a question simply by keeping the normal sentence order (Vous avez vu...) and just raising your pitch at the end. You could absolutely say Est-ce que vous avez vu mon petit chien ? or Avez-vous vu mon petit chien ?, but the way it's written here is the most natural for casual conversation.
Wait, shouldn't the adjective come after the noun in French? Why is it petit chien and not chien petit?
Most French adjectives do go after the noun, but there is a special group of common, short adjectives that go before the noun. A helpful trick is to remember the acronym BAGS (Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size). Because petit describes Size, it goes before chien.

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