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Le panel n'a-t-il pas reçu l'échantillon ?

Le panel n'a-t-il pas reçu l'échantillon ?
Did the panel not receive the sample?
From Lesson 228:Formal questions with noun subjects·French

Questions & Answers about Le panel n'a-t-il pas reçu l'échantillon ?

Why is there both Le panel and il in the same sentence?
This is called "complex inversion," which is used for formal questions. When the subject of your question is a noun (like Le panel), it stays at the beginning of the sentence. However, you must still invert the verb, so you add the matching pronoun (il) right after the verb to create the question structure.
What is the -t- doing in n'a-t-il?
It is there to make pronunciation smoother. When you invert a verb that ends in a vowel (like a) with a pronoun that starts with a vowel (like il, elle, or on), French requires you to insert a -t- between them so the two vowel sounds do not crash into each other.
How does the negative ne ... pas wrap around this complex inversion?
In inverted questions, the negation hugs the conjugated verb and its attached pronoun. The n' goes right before the verb (a), and the pas goes immediately after the inverted pronoun (il). This gives us the complete block n'a-t-il pas.
Why is reçu placed all the way after pas?
Because the sentence is in the passé composé (past tense). In any question or negative sentence, the inversion and the ne ... pas only affect the conjugated helping verb (in this case, a). The past participle (reçu) just waits patiently after the whole n'a-t-il pas structure is finished.

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