Learn French: Comment allez-vous ce soir ?

Comment allez-vous ce soir ?

How are you this evening?

Breakdown of Comment allez-vous ce soir ?

ce soir

tonight

comment allez-vous

how are you? (formal)

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Questions & Answers about Comment allez-vous ce soir ?

Wait, doesn't aller mean 'to go'? Why is the translation 'How are you?'

In English, we use the verb 'to be' to ask how someone is doing, but in French, you use aller (to go). Literally, you are asking 'How do you go?' or 'How are you going?'. It is a very common set phrase you will use all the time, similar to Comment ça va ? (How is it going?).

Why is it written as allez-vous with a hyphen instead of vous allez?

This is a formal way to ask a question in French, called 'inversion'. You simply flip the order of the subject (vous) and the verb (allez) and add a hyphen between them. A slightly more casual way to ask this would be Comment vous allez ?

Do I pronounce the 't' at the end of Comment?

Yes, you do in this specific case! Normally, the 't' at the end of Comment is silent. However, because the next word (allez) starts with a vowel, you pronounce the 't' to smoothly link the two words together. This is called a liaison, and it makes the phrase sound like 'kom-mawn-TAH-lay'.

What does ce mean in ce soir?

Ce is a pointer word that means 'this' or 'that'. You use ce because soir (evening) is a masculine word. If you were talking about a feminine time of day, like nuit (night), you would use cette instead, as in cette nuit (this night).