Conversation
Now that you’re becoming more familiar with how to ask a question, let’s talk about how to answer closed questions, also called yes-no questions.
How do you say yes or no in French?
|
Oui → Yes |
|
|---|---|
|
Est-ce que tu aimes le chocolat? Oui! |
Do you like chocolate? Yes! |
| Aime-t-il jouer au basket? Oui. |
Does he like to play basketball? Yes. |
|
Non → No |
|
|---|---|
| Elle n’est pas prête? Non. |
She’s not ready? Non. |
| Aimez-vous les épinards? Non! |
Do you like spinach? Non! |
In French, there’s a third way to answer yes-no questions, and it’s not “maybe.”
|
Si → Yes (to a negative question) |
|
|---|---|
| Tu n’aimes pas voyager? Si! |
You don’t like to travel? Yes! (I DO like to travel!) |
| Elle n’est pas prête? Si. |
She’s not ready? Yes. (She IS ready.) |
In French, the word si is used to mean “yes” when you are contradicting a negative question. You will learn another meaning of si later in this course.
Language note!
Oui and si are NOT
interchangeable. Oui is for answerin “yes” to affirmative
questions; si is for answering “yes” to negative ones.
|
Est-ce que tu aimes le pain au chocolat? Oui! |
Do you like chocolate croissants? Yes! |
| Tu n’aimes pas le pain au chocolat? | You don’t like chocolate croissants? |
| Si, j’aime le pain au chocolat! | Yes, I DO like chocolate croissants! |
Oui, si, and non are useful ways of answering questions, but they work only with closed, or yes-no, questions. That means you can’t use them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, or how. For those questions, you must listen to or read the question carefully so that you can provide the necessary information in response.
Which is the correct response to Il n’aime pas les chiens?
- Non, il aime les chiens.
- Oui, il aime les chiens.
- Si, il aime les chiens!
Sorry that is not correct.
Sorry that is not correct.
Correct!
Summary
Questions answered correctly:
Questions answered incorrectly:
