French Question Formation Chart — Editable Excel Reference Worksheet

French Question Formation Chart — Editable Reference Worksheet

A one-page reference chart that turns French question formation into a clear, repeatable decision process - instead of a grab-bag of rules.

Part of a wider French grammar reference collection, available separately.

Why this exists
Turning a statement into a question in French isn’t one skill - it’s three separate systems (Yes/No, Standard WH, and Inversion) that interact with word choice, register, and pronoun placement. Textbooks rarely separate them clearly, so learners default to guessing. This chart does the separating for them.

What it is
A structural reference chart, provided as a print-ready PDF and as an editable Excel worksheet, so you can adapt wording, colours, or layout for your own classroom or printing setup.

What it does well
Separates Yes/No, Standard WH, and Inversion into clearly bounded systems
Makes the relative frequency of each form explicit (spoken vs. formal)
Shows how the same WH-word feeds into different question structures
Flags illegal constructions before they happen (e.g. inversion with object qui)
Integrates verb, pronoun, negation, and agreement rules without repeating them

How to use it
Decide the question strategy first: Yes/No, Standard WH, or Inversion
Choose the WH-word (if needed) and confirm which structures it can feed into
Apply the structure using the rules and word order shown

What’s included
1-page PDF (colour)
1-page PDF (black and white)
A3 poster PDF
High-resolution PNG
Editable Excel worksheet (colour) - adapt wording, formatting, and layout for your own printing
Teacher instructions and guidance document (PDF)
Read-me file (PDF)
Licensing and editing notes (PDF)

Who this is for
KS4 French teachers (Years 10-11, GCSE)
Sixth-form and post-16 French programmes
Independent language teachers and tutors
Language centres and private providers

What this chart doesn’t try to do
This isn’t a substitute for oral drilling, communicative practice, or discourse-level teaching - it doesn’t cover indirect, embedded, or rhetorical questions. It’s a structural reference for the core direct-question systems, used alongside your existing teaching sequence.

Licence
Single-teacher licence, lifetime.
Classroom use permitted for one teacher
Printing and projection allowed for that teacher’s own classes
Not for redistribution, sharing, or resale
Institutional or multi-teacher use is not included - contact support@swiftfrench.com for those enquiries

Part of the SwiftFrench rule-driven grammar reference series.