Level A1 · Lesson 8
The investigation
L’enquête
The narrator proposes an investigation, right here on deck. Lupin goes by the name of Mr R, he travels alone, he is fair-haired. And in the narrator’s pocket there is already a list of the passengers.
The story
Je regarde miss Nelly et je propose : « Une enquête, mademoiselle ! Nous cherchons Lupin, ici, sur le pont ! »
I look at Miss Nelly and suggest: “An investigation, mademoiselle! We look for Lupin ourselves, right here on deck!”
« Vous êtes fou ! Est-ce que c’est possible ? » demande Nelly.
“You are mad! Is that even possible?” asks Nelly.
« Bien sûr. Qu’est-ce que nous avons ? Trois indices. »
“Of course. What do we have? Three clues.”
« Un : Lupin s’appelle monsieur R. Deux : il voyage seul. Trois : il est blond. »
“One: Lupin goes by the name of Mr R. Two: he travels alone. Three: he is fair-haired.”
« Et alors ? Qui est Lupin ? Où est Lupin ? Comment est-ce que nous trouvons un homme blond sur un grand bateau ? »
“So what? Who is Lupin? Where is Lupin? How do we find one fair-haired man on a big ship?”
« Avec la liste des passagers ! » J’ai la liste dans la poche.
“With the passenger list!” I have the list in my pocket.
« Vous avez déjà la liste ? Pourquoi ? » « Le commandant est un ami, mademoiselle. »
“You already have the list? Why?” “The captain is a friend, mademoiselle.”
Nelly regarde la liste. « Quelle liste ! Il y a beaucoup de noms. Quel nom commence par R ? »
Nelly looks at the list. “What a list! There are so many names. Which name begins with R?”
Le jeune homme blond écoute, silencieux. « Patience. Êtes-vous prête, mademoiselle ? » « Oui ! »
The fair-haired young man listens, silent. “Patience. Are you ready, mademoiselle?” “Yes!”
Vocabulary
- l’enquête: the investigation
- l’indice: the clue
- la liste: the list
- le nom: the name, the surname
- la poche: the pocket
- la patience: patience
- proposer: to suggest, to propose
- chercher: to look for
- trouver: to find
- demander: to ask
- écouter: to listen (to)
- commencer par: to begin with
- qui ?: who?
- où ?: where?
- comment ?: how?
- pourquoi ?: why?
- qu’est-ce que… ?: what…?
- quel / quelle… ?: which…?, what…?
- est-ce que… ?: (turns a sentence into a yes/no question)
- seul / seule: alone
- fou / folle: mad
- prêt / prête: ready
- possible: possible
- bien sûr: of course
- déjà: already
- beaucoup de: a lot of, many
Asking questions
Three ways to ask a yes-or-no question. All three mean exactly the same thing; they differ only in how formal they sound.
| how | example | sounds |
|---|---|---|
| just raise your voice at the end | Vous avez la liste ? | relaxed, spoken |
| put est-ce que in front | Est-ce que vous avez la liste ? | neutral, always safe |
| swap verb and subject, add a hyphen | Avez-vous la liste ? | polished, written |
Est-ce que literally means “is it that”, but nobody hears it that way: it is simply a flag that says “question coming”. It is the most useful of the three, because the rest of the sentence stays in normal order. Before a vowel it becomes est-ce qu’: est-ce qu’il voyage seul ?
Inversion is what the narrator uses with Nelly, because he is being gallant: Êtes-vous prête ? If the verb ends in a vowel and the subject is il or elle, French slips in a -t- so the two vowels do not collide: a-t-il la liste ? It is there purely for the sound.
Question words go at the front: qui ? (who), où ? (where; mind the accent, ou without it means “or”), comment ? (how), pourquoi ? (why), qu’est-ce que ? (what). Add est-ce que after them if you like: comment est-ce que nous trouvons Lupin ?
Quel (which, what) is an adjective, so it agrees with its noun like any other, from lesson 2:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | quel nom ? | quels indices ? |
| feminine | quelle liste ? | quelles cabines ? |
All four sound identical, so this is purely a spelling matter. And as Nelly shows, quel also makes exclamations: Quelle liste !, what a list!
Leblanc in the original
«Le problème est-il si compliqué?»Is the problem so very complicated?