KS3 · French · Year 7
Ask about plans: inversion questions with question words
My plans: aller + infinitive
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/11
Your learning goal
I can ask about future plans using inversion questions with question words.
1 of 11
Ask about plans: inversion questions with question words: slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can ask about future plans using inversion questions with question words.
Key learning points
- The French [g] has two sounds: soft before the letters e, i and y and hard before other letters.
- We use 'aller' in the present tense followed by an infinitive to talk about future plans.
- 'They' has two different pronouns in French: 'ils' for a male or mixed gender group and 'elles' for a female group.
- Questions about future plans follow the normal patterns for closed (yes/no) and information questions.
- When forming inversion questions for future plans, only 'aller' and the pronoun swap e.g. Vont-ils venir ?
Words to know
- [j/soft g]
- sound-symbol correspondence like the [j] in 'jour' or the [soft g] sound in 'génial'
- ils vont
- French verb meaning 'they (m) go' or 'they are going'
- elles vont
- French verb meaning 'they (f) go' or 'they are going'
- inversion question
- when the subject pronoun and the verb switch place to form a question
Common mistakes
To create inversion questions in French, you just swap the verb and subject around.
As well as swapping verb and subject, a hyphen is needed betwen the verb and the subject pronoun when forming inversion questions, e.g. 'Vont-elles créer des vêtements ?' - 'Are they going to create clothes?'.
For parents, carers and teachers
- Using students at the front of the class holding words on large sheets of paper to physically demonstrate the swapping of verb and pronoun and the addition of a hyphen when forming different inversion questions can help to highlight and explain this common mistake.