Breakdown of Est-ce que tu veux nous montrer les dessins ?
tu
you (informal singular)
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
est-ce que
is it that / do / does (question marker)
vouloir
to want
Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu veux nous montrer les dessins ?
Why is nous placed right before montrer instead of before the first verb, veux?
When a sentence has a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive (an unconjugated verb like montrer), object pronouns usually go right before the infinitive. Since the action being done to us is "showing," nous steps directly in front of montrer.
Does nous mean "us" or "to us" in this sentence?
How would I say "Do you want to show them to us?" if I replaced les dessins with a pronoun?
You would use the direct object pronoun les for "them". Just like nous, it goes right before the infinitive montrer. When using two pronouns, nous comes before les, giving you: Est-ce que tu veux nous les montrer ?
I often see questions without est-ce que. Could I leave it out here?
Absolutely. In casual spoken French, people often drop est-ce que and just raise their pitch at the end of the sentence: Tu veux nous montrer les dessins ? Using est-ce que is just a standard, clear way to frame a yes/no question.