Learn French: Est-ce que tu cherches le voleur ? - Are you looking for the thief?

Est-ce que tu cherches le voleur ?

Are you looking for the thief?

Breakdown of Est-ce que tu cherches le voleur ?

you (informal singular)

est-ce que

is it that / do / does (question marker)

Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu cherches le voleur ?

Why is there no French word for "for" in this sentence?

In French, the verb chercher already means "to look for" or "to search for". The "for" is built right into the verb, so you never add a word like pour after it.

Since our lesson is about indefinite pronouns, how would I change this to ask "Are you looking for someone?"

You would replace the specific noun le voleur with the indefinite pronoun quelqu'un (someone). The sentence would just become Est-ce que tu cherches quelqu'un ?.

Could I ask this question without using est-ce que?

Yes, conversational French often drops est-ce que. You can just say Tu cherches le voleur ? while making your voice go up at the end to show it is a question.

What if we know the thief we are looking for is a woman?

You would change the masculine le voleur to the feminine form, which is la voleuse.