By adding "est-ce que" to the above phrase, it literally becomes the question "Is it that we ate cheese?" although it is really the French equivalent of asking "Did we eat the cheese?"

A shorter way to ask the same question is by a method called "inversion." The following example uses the same phrase from above:
	Nous avons mangé le fromage. becomes... Avons-nous mangé le fromage?

This example is in the passé composé, so the pronoun and the helping verb (in this case, avoir) are flipped and hyphenated. This phrase literally translates to "Have we eaten the cheese?" although it is understood in the same manner as adding "est-ce que" is. An example in the present tense could be formed into a question in the same way, except by flipping the regular verb (such as manger) in place of the helping verb.

The following are common question words seen in French:

français qui que/qu'est-ce que où quand pourquoi comment combien quel/quelle

anglais who what where when why how how much/how many which