est-ce que

Etymology
From the subject-verb of.

Usage notes

 * Before a vowel, becomes :
 * In older forms of French, and in more formal registers of present-day French, the role of is often fulfilled by subject-verb inversion:
 * In fact, itself results from subject-verb inversion; it comes from  — however, in modern French,  is a set phrase that does not necessarily function as the inversion of  and the former can be used to introduce a question beginning with the latter:
 * In older forms of French, and in more formal registers of present-day French, the role of is often fulfilled by subject-verb inversion:
 * In fact, itself results from subject-verb inversion; it comes from  — however, in modern French,  is a set phrase that does not necessarily function as the inversion of  and the former can be used to introduce a question beginning with the latter:
 * In fact, itself results from subject-verb inversion; it comes from  — however, in modern French,  is a set phrase that does not necessarily function as the inversion of  and the former can be used to introduce a question beginning with the latter:


 * In colloquial French, yes-or-no questions are often indicated solely by punctuation (in writing) or intonation (in speech), with no special lexical or syntactic marker:
 * Similarly, non–yes-or-no questions often use the same structure as statements, with question words not being preposed:
 * Similarly, non–yes-or-no questions often use the same structure as statements, with question words not being preposed:


 * In informal or colloquial French, question syntax is often used instead of subject-verb inversion in indirect questions: