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In written form, is it correct to repeat the inversion in a question? For example: "Pensez-vous......, auriez-vous... ?"

The sentence was: "Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 août auriez-vous le temps...?"

jlliagre
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    What do you mean with "repeat the inversion in a question". There's no repetition in Pensez-vous ?... or Auriez-vous?...? And can you look as the answers to these to see if you can find an answer to your question? Inversions in questions Sentence inversion for questions. – None Aug 24 '21 at 17:35
  • It's the same sentence. It starts by "Pensez-vous" and in the middle there's "auriez-vous". These forms are separated by a comma, in the same sentence. Could you tell me, please, if it's correct? –  Aug 24 '21 at 17:38
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    It's probably better if you can be more explicit in your question. Join two sentences with et is always possible, for example : Peux-tu manger et peux-tu m'écouter en même temps ? Having a comma might depend on what you want to say. I just wonder why you want a comma and not a period. – None Aug 24 '21 at 17:48
  • @None Thanks a lot! –  Aug 24 '21 at 17:54
  • I don't think I have answered your question, I'm sure there are plenty of possibilities according to what verbs you use, what follows, etc. – None Aug 24 '21 at 18:01
  • But it isn't strictly incorrect from a grammatical point of view to use the inversion more than once, right? –  Aug 24 '21 at 18:06
  • @MichelT Using the inversion twice would put the subject-verb back in their original order... – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 20:44
  • @jlliagre So it would be incorrect? User None didn't mention that in his answer –  Aug 24 '21 at 20:50
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    Sorry, I should probably have added a smiley to my previous comment. I was just stating that Vous pensez inverted gives Pensez-vous, but inverted again gives back Vous pensez... There is no such thing as a "double inversion". Double negation for example exists in English : "I don't want no cake" but two successive negative verbal forms ("I don't want cake, I don't want a drink") do not make a double negation. That's the same with inversions. Two successive inversions are not a double inversion. – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 21:19
  • LOL now I get it, sorry! Thanks a lot! –  Aug 24 '21 at 21:25
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    So your question is basically: Is it grammatical to say "Do you want some cake, do you want a drink?" The issue is quite similar in French. The comma is odd. – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 21:31
  • @jlliagre The sentence was: "Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 aôut auriez-vous le temps...?" I didn't know if it was gramatically correct. Could you give me your two cents? –  Aug 24 '21 at 21:49
  • Ah, that makes sense now! You should update your question with it. The answer is: no, that's not grammatical. That should be: Pensez-vous que d'ici au 30 août, vous auriez le temps... ? – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 21:57
  • Thanks... do you think it's a very bad mistake? The message was already sent like that –  Aug 24 '21 at 22:09
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    That depends on how you define very bad. If that was your application letter for the Académie française, it's dead :-) If the main goal was to be understood, I have no doubt that's the case. – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 22:30
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    In English: "Do you think you'll have time to do it?" vs "Do you think will you have time to do it?" – jlliagre Aug 24 '21 at 22:32
  • On se trompe et on s'enfarge dans sa propre phrase et la deuxième question est comme une modification de la première, on voulait possiblement dire pensez-vous avoir le temps de... faire qqc... jusqu'au 30. Ou on s'est planté avec l'indication de temps, on voulait dire d'ici le 30, comme trouver un moment d'ici le 30. Parfois j'entends des gens dire des trucs pareils. On essaye de se rattraper mais c'est mal ficelé. – ninja米étoilé Aug 25 '21 at 19:51

1 Answers1

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If we write two full sentences we would usually have a question mark after each question.

  • Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin ? Auriez-vous l’obligeance de refermer la porte derrière vous.

The way to escape that would be to join the two sentences with et, not a comma.

  • Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin et auriez-vous l’obligeance de fermer la porte derrière vous ?

It is grammatical but sounds rather awkward. Personally I would rather write:

  • Pourriez-vous mettre le chien dans le jardin et avoir l'obligeance de fermer la porte derrière vous ?

With a different sentence we could have:

  • As-tu déjà pris le train et es-tu déjà allé en France ?

And you would have et or two question marks, not a comma.

Now that the question has been edited the answer above is no longer suited.

Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 août auriez-vous le temps...?" is not correct at all.
Even if eventually you want to know if the person has time, the question you want to ask is on penser, not avoir le temps. Avoir le temps is part of the information asked for but it is not part of the grammatical question, grammatically that part of the sentence is a subordinate clause that depends on the main clause that is pensez-vous..

  • Pensez-vous que jusqu'au 30 aout vous auriez le temps (de...) ?

You could also write:

  • Pensez avoir le temps (de...) d'ici le 30 août ?
None
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