Quelqu'un peut-il m'aider...?

Question

"Can anybody help me?" I'm curious about why this inversion needs "il" after "peut"?  Is the non-inverted question form: Est-ce que quelqu'un peut m'aider?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Thalia, 
This is the Kwiziq lesson you require -
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/forming-questions-by-inverting-in-the-present-tense-il-elle-on-forms
and the non-inversion question using 'est-ce que' is indeed -
Est-ce que quelqu'un peut m'aider?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Answer

Hi Anne and J,
Yes, in informal speech, in everyday life you would say -
Quelqu'un peut m'aider ? = Can someone help me?
with the raising of the voice at the end.

J T · Answer

I had a similar question: colloquially speaking, is 'quelqu'un peut m'aider?' not also correct?  I'm struggling to understand why inversion is necessary at all in the example.

Anne Davies · Answer

I’d be interested to know if there’s a particular reason you can’t phrase the question as J does, in spoken French. That is, by intonation alone.

Also the answer to Jennifer’s duplicated questions "Aimais/aime". I suspect using "j’aimais" is due to the need for concordance des temps (the correct sequence of tenses) - either I loved or I love is ok in English but not in French.