"Où sont tes yeux ?"
Translation:Where are your eyes?
96 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Gosh people, leave this sentence alone! It's like none of you have ever misplaced your eyes before.
maybe your french friend is wearing a halloween costume that makes it look like he doesn't have eyes so you ask "Où sont tes yeux?"
Its figural. Google presents over 1.000.000 sites with this sentence. So I think its right here. :-)
Not really Google search with Keywords, so things like Whee are your Eyeglasses it will pick up too so.
not if you put a sentence in quotation marks ""
So if i google "Whee are your Eyeglasses" there are no hits. But if i google "Où sont tes yeux" there are over one million hits.
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1982/11/ARIF/37053
http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/J%E2%80%99ai_ferm%C3%A9_les_yeux
http://www.parolevivante.net/pages/Tes_yeux_sont_des_colombes-1588353.html
Yea, the liaison before 'yeux' is consistently missing, even when it's obligatory (as it is in this sentence).
To clarify, it should be pronounced /u-sõ-te-zjø/ not /u-sõ-te-jø/
It's hard to figure the word when it's missing, too, particularly in the sentences that don't make a whole lot of sense.
This is not a question to ask someone (that maybe has a problem with their eyes), and also, that's a poor french pronounciation for such a simple phrase.
Everyone else is crazy... it just sounds like someone quizzing a child to me...
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My wife is European and uses this phrase with our granddaughter and sometimes with me. For those who say it is rude or a put down of some kind, it very much depends on the tone and circumstances. Neither of us take offense when my wife says it because she does not use it that way. We are as surprised as she is when she points out how visible is the object that we profess is missing and then expresses wonder about where our eyes are.
Thankyou, northernguy! Given context (=Use your eyes!") it is no longer a stomach turner! It is just a nearly parallel quip.
I'd imagine this sentence is just a rude comment used when somebody is not careful...
As a 25 years old native I have never heard this :) It's more likely a random sentence.
I could imagine an adult teaching a child French asking this, making it a game.
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I had not realized that this sentence was so evil ...I will now avoid using it with my one year old niece ....
I don't think any of the responders to this post are amply endowed women or they would know when to use this rebuke!
It is also known in German "Wo sind deine Augen", e.g. rebuking a male for looking at the breast of another women.
Maybe it's a German thing, but I would think said male would probably be looking at both breasts.
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This meaning seemed really obvious to me too. Amazing how people who've chosen to learn a foreign language can have such a hyper-literal focus.
Old english folk song that seems appropriate -"My eyes are dim I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me"
Would that be "There were snakes, snakes, snakes, as long as garden rakes at the store, at the store?" Boy Scouts used to sing it here in the US.
I think part of the reason they teach such obscure sentences is so that you get into the habit of practicing difference sentences. This way you're not usually predicting what to say and how to say it. Accept the challenge!
I'd prefer to learn sentences I can actually use. Also when the sentence is nonsense it's difficult to understand it in the dictation exercises, because I'm always questioning what I heard.
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They are also teaching you sentences that you might hear even if it is not something you would say.
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You all have no imagination. I can think of three fairly common situations/contexts where this sentiment is used. 1. Peek-a-boo/Teaching a child body parts 2. When someone is claiming they can't find something (similar to "if it was a snake it would have bit you") 3. Some people's eyes tend to stray towards other body parts.
It's a fun sentence, particularly useful when talking to your kids or other absent-minded creatures :)
I like this sentence! At least it is going to be remembered and used on my husband because we always argue about his driving:))
I am starting to like some of these questions : ) .. like: ''what am i?'', ''where are your eyes?''
Think of a class of children teacher asks :where are your eyes? Makes sense
In English we would say "Are you blind?" e.g "Are you blind, ref?" (refereree)
Is this how this sentence is used in French? A French native speaker said above that she'd never heard it before.
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It isn't idiomatic. It is a straightforward question.
The comment immediately above yours poses a similar kind of comment in English. ...Are you blind.... That is not an idiom in English. It is used ironically sometimes but it isn't an idiom where the meaning cannot be known except by special knowledge of the language.
Duo doesn't identify examples that are idiomatic, poetic expressions or typically used to convey sarcasm But they do provide a whole pages of discussion about their use. We are on one right now. That is the learning model they use.
Is this a phrase that varies depending on the social context.? It does in English. It does in most European languages. There is no doubt that it does in French as well. What native English speaker would not understand that...Are you blind?..... can be used to convey irony about someone's ability to locate things.
What French speaker, complaining about not being able to find something, is completely mystified by someone pointing out that it is literally right in front of them and the observer saying.......Où sont tes yeux ? What French speaker would say ....Why are you talking about my eyes in this situation?
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felicits
I'm sorry if you feel I wasted your time answering your question. However, you did reference whether it was idiomatic.
The first time I heard where are your eyes, in English was exactly that; the first time. I understood the meaning the fist time. I have since heard the phrase a few times. However, if someone had asked me if I had heard it before I would have said no.
Would a French speaker say something like this phrase? Yes, some would. Would a French speaker understand what was meant by the comment? Yes. Would it be the first time many French speakers heard the phrase? Possibly.
Yes, the discussion pages are normally helpful, that's why I commented to ask about the usage of the phrase. Your comment doesn't add anything. I wanted to know if it's a phrase actually used by French native speakers, you've just compared it to a (frankly horrible) phrase in English that you assume has a similar meaning and assumed it has the same usage. I could have done that myself.
I guess the spider robots found out where Tom Cruise's eyes were in Minority Report . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=901lYbPmqu4&list=PLD904446C6E080014
And yet no one mentioned the great French horror film "les yeux sans visage" (or Billy idol song)
"Le sage a ses yeux en sa tête, et le fou marche dans les ténèbres." - Ecclésiaste 2:14 (The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness.)
I think the liaison is between sont and tes (that's why it kind of sounds like one word). :)
The liaison is between "tes" and "yeux". Without liaison it would be pronounced "teh yuh", the liaison makes the 's' sound like a 'z'. So the pronounciation is "teh-zy-uh"
Because the automatic pronunciation doesn't say it right. A liaison happens only when a word that ends with a consonant that should be mute is placed before a word that start with a vowel (or a "silent" h). There are a lot of rules for liaisons but the most common one is between a possessive pronoun and a noun like : mon ami (mon "nami"), mes amis (mes "zami"), tes oreilles (tes "zoreilles") or like here tes yeux (tes "zyeux").
Oh, ok. The mistake was on my end. Thanks for the explanation! You deserve a lingot or 2! ;)
I propose to change this sentence. It is not possible to understand ( ou sont té ő) at all.
This is the third time Duo has creeped me out with one of their sentences. Way to go, Duo!
I imagine this as being used in a game a grownup plays with a child. Like if it was me and my kid nephew, I might cover his eyes and say "Where's your eyes? Where'd they go?" Like a game of peek-a-boo. The 'te' form means it someone I'm on pretty decent terms with, familial or friendly ya?
I'm glad some of the sentences are a little confounding and require an active imagination to come up with a context for.
I believe it is used when somebody can't see something obvious or does something clumsy, e.g. tripping over an obvious obstruction in the ground.
I don't find this question odd at all. "Hey look, a green owl! Cool!" "Where?" "Over there by the tree, next to the group of students!" "I don't see it!" "Dude, where are your eyes??"
There's another weird phrase in Russian, with similiar meaning "Unshoe your eyes"
If you are a teacher, then you will have no problem with this phase! This is a phrase you would regularly use when asking children where they are looking (when they should be looking at the board, at their work, at the book etc).
In Arabic, that would be used as figurative , as in the wife threateningly asking the husband at who's he checking out !.
It could also mean where are you looking... "Where are your eyes?!" She asked the pervert