Voted Best Answer
Aug 30, 2018 - 01:08 PM
That's kind of a tough one, because there are some common inversions that do not sound too formal. To me, "comment va-t-elle" doesn't sound as formal as "puis-je partir demain". Indeed "comment elle va?" sounds a bit too informal to me, but "je peux partir demain?" sounds absolutely normal, something you would hear everywhere. "Comment est-ce qu'elle va" is better, and "Elle va comment" is in between. I would say that in general, the inversion sounds too formal, and as Andy and Emilie explained, it's usually found in writing, and you will hear it a lot in old french movies too, but nowadays the inversion is less common. We recognize classic french teaching when someone speaks with inversions all the time! I have to add that French is difficult in that there are two forms of the language, written and oral, and they are very different, unlike spanish or italian, so unless you're planning to study french for litterature only, I would stick with what Fluenz teaches you, and you can then learn the more formal when you have a good foundation of the day to day French when you finish level 5 !
