Do you can

[57730]

(1)To ask if someone can do something, one can use the sentence construction:
Can+subject+infinitive+what remains to say in the sentence

Examples:
Can i go out there with you?
Can you show me where the library's at?

(2)To ask anything in the present tense, the sentence construction is basically:
Do(es)+the sentence with the verb conjugated in the present tense

Examples:
Do you make this stuff yourself?
Does he even go to school?

(3)In my native language (french), both of the sentence constructions used to express the same things are identical. However, except in formal situations, we tend to use only the second construction. Thus, to ask if someone can do something, we would be using the sentence construction that follows:
Do(es)+the sentence with the verb "can" conjugated in the present tense

Which would give us sentences like:
Do you can see the top of the blackboard?
Does he can use a computer properly?

I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I've never heard anyone using the third construction in english. Is the use of "can" restricted when using the second construction? If it isn't, between (1) and (3), is one more formal than the other?

Edit : I changed "the sentence constructions" to "both of the sentence constructions used" in (3) to clarify

 

[5jj]

(3)In my native language (French), the sentence constructions to express the same things are identical.

Really?

I have never heard anything like Fait-il aller ...?

 

[57730]

I was thinking about "est-ce que" which doesn't mean "do" at all, but is used in the same way when it comes to form the question. Here, it would be Est-ce qu'il va...

 

[5jj]

I was thinking about "est-ce que" which doesn't mean "do" at all, but is used in the same way when it comes to form the question. Here, it would be Est-ce qu'il va...

Right. It is completely misleading to suggest that est-ce que equates with DO.

It is possible in English to ask a question with is it that, the English equivalent of est-ce que. This way, however, is not common, and is appropriate only in certain situations.

In standard English, we use inversion with the modals (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would); with DARE, NEED as modals; and, for some people, ought (to) and used (to); with auxiliary DO, BE, HAVE; with BE (and, for some speakers of BrE, HAVE) as a non-auxiliary.

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[57730]

What I meant was that "do" and "est-ce que" are used in the same way to form the structure of the question. For example, I reckon that:
Est-ce que tu veux aller au parc ?
would be translated by
Do you want to go the park?
Here, "Est-ce que" fulfills the same role as "do" does in the second sentence. The rest of it is just the sentence at the present tense the question is about. "Tu veux aller au parc." means the same thing as "You want to go to the park".
"Is it that", even though it literally means "est-ce que", wouldn't be a good translation for it would be overly formal.

My question was about the fact that in French, one would use "est-ce que tu peux..." (which doesn't have any reason not to exist, since "pouvoir"=can is a verb like any other), but that i never heard "Do you can..." in English.
I don't really understand why it doesn't work with can, may, will and shall. It doesn't sound right so I guess the modals are not used this way.

 

[5jj]

1. Est-ce que canNOT be equated with DO.
2. Is it that you can ...? is possible in English (though, I admit, rarely common or natural).
3. English and French are two different languages. You cannot expect the 'rules' of one language to apply to the other.
3a. It just happens that the French verbs devoir, pouvoir, savoir and vouloir function more like other verbs in French than their equivalents in English do.

C'est la vie. That's [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] life.