À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain?

À quelle heure means at what time.

Literally, the sentence begins with:

• à = at
• quelle = which / what
• heure = hour / time

So the structure is very close to At what time does the French class start tomorrow?

In French, À quelle heure...? is a very common way to ask for a specific clock time.

Because heure is a feminine noun in French.

• quel = masculine singular
• quelle = feminine singular

Since heure is feminine, French uses quelle:

• À quelle heure...

If the noun were masculine, you would use quel instead.

The accent helps distinguish à from a.

• à = a preposition meaning to, at, in
• a = the verb avoir in the he/she has form

So here:

• À quelle heure = At what time not
• a quelle heure

The accent matters in writing, even though learners often hear them similarly in speech.

This is a question structure with inversion.

The normal statement would be:

• Le cours de français commence demain. = The French class starts tomorrow.

To make a more formal or standard written question, French can put the verb before the subject:

• À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain ?

So the order becomes:

• question phrase
• verb
• subject

This is common in written French and careful speech.

A more conversational version would be:

• À quelle heure est-ce que le cours de français commence demain ? or even
• Le cours de français commence à quelle heure demain ?

Yes, it sounds fairly standard and somewhat formal/neutral, especially because of the inversion:

• commence le cours

It is very natural in writing and perfectly correct in speech, but in everyday conversation many speakers might prefer:

• À quelle heure est-ce que le cours de français commence demain ? or
• Le cours de français commence à quelle heure demain ?

So the original sentence is not strange at all—it is just a bit more structured than very casual spoken French.

Because French has more than one way to form questions.

Three common ways are:

1. Inversion

   • À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain ?

2. Est-ce que

   • À quelle heure est-ce que le cours de français commence demain ?

3. Intonation / everyday spoken style

   • Le cours de français commence à quelle heure demain ?

All can mean the same thing. The sentence you were given uses inversion instead of est-ce que.

Commence is the third-person singular form of commencer.

It matches the subject le cours, which is singular:

• le cours commence = the class starts

So:

• je commence = I start
• tu commences = you start
• il/elle/on commence = he/she/it/one starts
• le cours commence = the class starts

Here it means starts or begins.

Because cours de français means French class / French course, literally course of French.

In French, subjects are often introduced with de:

• un cours de français = a French class
• un professeur de mathématiques = a math teacher
• un livre d’histoire = a history book

If you said le cours français, it would usually sound like the French course in the sense of a course that is French, which is not the normal way to express French class.

So de français tells you the subject being studied.

Yes. Cours is a flexible word.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• class
• lesson
• course

So le cours de français could mean:

• the French class
• the French lesson
• the French course

In this sentence, English would often translate it naturally as the French class.

Demain means tomorrow, and French often places time expressions like this at the end of the sentence.

So:

• À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain ?

is completely natural.

You could also move it for emphasis:

• Demain, à quelle heure commence le cours de français ?

Both are correct. The original version just sounds very normal and straightforward.

Because demain is normally used by itself to mean tomorrow.

French does not say something like the tomorrow.

So:

• demain = tomorrow

Compare:

• aujourd’hui = today
• demain = tomorrow
• hier = yesterday

These words usually do not need an article.

A very literal breakdown is:

• À quelle heure = At what time
• commence = starts / begins
• le cours de français = the French class
• demain = tomorrow

So the literal order is:

At what time starts the French class tomorrow?

That is not natural English word order, but it helps show how the French sentence is built.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

ah kel ur ko-mahns luh koor duh frahn-say duh-mahn

A few useful notes:

• quelle sounds roughly like kel
• heure has the French eu sound, which has no exact English equivalent
• commence ends with an s sound: ko-mahns
• cours sounds like koor
• français ends like say
• demain sounds roughly like duh-mahn

Also, French rhythm is smoother than English, so the words flow together quite a bit.

Not really any major required liaison in the most noticeable places here.

For example:

• quelle heure does not create the kind of liaison beginners often expect
• commence le does not have a special liaison either

The sentence is mostly pronounced smoothly without many dramatic linking sounds.

That said, French naturally connects words in fluent speech, so even without formal liaison, it will still sound quite flowing.

Yes, but the meaning becomes less specific.

• Quand commence le cours de français demain ? = When does the French class start tomorrow?

This asks when, in a broader sense.

• À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain ? = At what time does the French class start tomorrow?

This specifically asks for a clock time.

So À quelle heure is better when you want an answer like à 9 heures.

Yes. That is a very common spoken-style question.

Compare:

• À quelle heure commence le cours de français demain ?

  • more structured / standard / somewhat formal

• Le cours de français commence à quelle heure demain ?

  • very natural in conversation

Both are correct. The difference is mainly style and sentence structure, not meaning.