Learn French: Pourquoi est-ce que tu travailles toute l'année ?

Pourquoi est-ce que tu travailles toute l'année ?

Why do you work all year?

Breakdown of Pourquoi est-ce que tu travailles toute l'année ?

you (informal singular)

travailler

to work

est-ce que

is it that / do / does (question marker)

pourquoi

why

Questions & Answers about Pourquoi est-ce que tu travailles toute l'année ?

Why is it toute instead of tout here?

The word for year, année, is feminine. The French word for 'all' or 'the whole' has to match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since année is feminine and singular, you must use the feminine singular form toute.

Why is there an l' in the middle of toute l'année?

In French, to say 'all year', you literally have to say 'all the year'. Because année starts with a vowel, the feminine word for 'the' (la) drops its vowel and becomes l' so the words flow together smoothly.

Why does this sentence use année instead of an for the word 'year'?

You generally use année when focusing on the duration or the span of time, like when you talk about experiencing 'the whole year' from start to finish. The word an is mostly used for simple counting, like stating your age or a specific number of years.

Why do we need est-ce que after pourquoi?

Adding est-ce que is a standard way to form questions in conversational French. It acts as a bridge so you do not have to swap the subject and verb around. It lets you take the question word pourquoi (why) and follow it directly with the normal sentence order tu travailles (you work).