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Quand est-ce que tu ouvres les cadeaux ?

Quand est-ce que tu ouvres les cadeaux ?
When do you open the gifts?
From Lesson 90:Irregular -ir verbs with regular endings (ouvrir, offrir)·French

Questions & Answers about Quand est-ce que tu ouvres les cadeaux ?

Why does ouvres end in -es? I thought -ir verbs usually end in -is for the tu form.
Ouvrir (to open) is a special irregular verb. Even though its infinitive ends in -ir, it conjugates exactly like a regular -er verb in the present tense. So instead of taking an -is ending, the tu form takes -es (tu ouvres). The same rule applies to offrir (to offer).
Can I say Quand ouvres-tu les cadeaux ? instead of using est-ce que?
Yes, you absolutely can! Quand ouvres-tu... uses inversion and sounds a bit more formal. Using Quand est-ce que tu ouvres... is the standard way to ask questions in everyday spoken French. In very casual speech, you might even hear Tu ouvres les cadeaux quand ?.
Why does cadeaux end in an -x instead of an -s?
In French, nouns that end in -eau in the singular (like un cadeau, a gift) form their plural by adding an -x rather than an -s. The pronunciation stays exactly the same as the singular.
Is there a special pronunciation for Quand est-ce que?
Yes! Because Quand ends in a consonant and est-ce starts with a vowel, we make a liaison. The d at the end of Quand links to the next word, but it changes to sound like a t. So, the beginning of this sentence is pronounced like quant-est-ce que.

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