"What are you waiting for?"
Translation:Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?
95 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1447
99% of the time Duo does not require hypens or apostrophes. I typically leave them as spaces to save time and then get caught out that random time it wants them!
Hyphens are mandatory as an integral part of French spelling. Apostrophes too, and you should be careful not to add spaces before or after an apostrophe. However, usually, DL forgives such mistakes unless there is at least another mistake in your sentence.
Hi Sitesurf. Can you please explain why “ qu’attendez-vous “ is still being marked wrong every time, it’s getting annoying now. Thanks
Corrected by Sitesurf:
"Qu'est-ce que..." or "Qu'est-ce qu' " CAN ONLY BE FOLLOWED BY A STATEMENT in the subject-verb format and not by the verb-subject inversion.
I think just one of the two constructs "est-ce que" or the inversion would be enough. "Qu'est-ce que vous attendez?" or "Qu'attendez-vous?"
Though I don't know what you said would be correct or incorrect, Sitesurf's comment below seems to indicate that would incorrect.
Sorry, by the latter I meant that:
"Qu'est-ce qu'attendez-vous?"
, is incorrect.
"Qu'attendez-vous?"
, is correct.
- 2104
That's right! "Qu'attendez-vous ?" is correct but is not accepted. Note that there is a space before the question mark in french.
Yes, it's bloody annoying when they don't fix their mistakes, and doesn't inspire confidence.
"Est-ce que" is a verb-subject inversion, so you don't add another one and the core of the question appears as a statement.
- Qu'est-ce que vous attendez? directly translates to "Is it that you are waiting?" where "you are waiting" is not inverted.
Because in french you can ask a question either by saying est-ce que OR inverting the verb with the subject. It's like saying "What are are you waiting for?"
Sorry, can't remember...when it comes up again, I'll write the whole thing.
Chris, that translates as 'for what are you waiting for?'. See the tautology?
"Quoi" never starts a question.
- Qu'attends-tu ? / Qu'attendez-vous ?
- Qu'est-ce que tu attends ? / Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?
- Tu attends quoi ? /Vous attendez quoi ?
- 696
At school a long time ago I learned to often use "qu'est-ce que c'est que" instead of just "qu'est-ce que". I always remember the phrase "qu'est-ce que c'est que ca?" because I thought it was quite cute. Is it no longer in use? No one seems to have mentioned it as an alternative and Duo did not accept it.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ?" means "What is this/that?" and it is still in use. This question is asking about the name or definition of the thing pointed to.
I also remember that at school...a long time ago. We all used to go about saying it. When I was living in France I never actually noticed anyone saying it though.
« À quoi tu attends » is not accepted. I think I heard this often by a native French speakers.
What you hear from native French speakers is « À quoi tu t'attends » = What do you expect?
- 911
la traduction qu'attendez-vous est la meilleure traduction. beaucoup de vos traductions en français sont approximatifs :(
approximatives.
"Qu'attendez-vous ?" is accepted in translation but it is not the one chosen by the course's writers because it is far less common in speech than "qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?"
- 1096
Because you have a word ending in a vowel sound followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound. You need to combine them: "Qu'attendez-vous ?".
Formal questions with a verb-subject pronoun inversion do not use "quoi" but "que".
"Quoi" is used in statement-like questions and after the verb.
- Qu'attends-tu ?
- Qu'est-ce que tu attends ?
- Tu attends quoi ?
Two verb-subject inversions in a question is one too many:
- Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?
- Qu'attendez-vous ?
"Attendre" does not need "de" nor any other preposition: "Tu attends quoi ?"
What is the different between "Qu'est-ce que..." and "Est ce que..." I'm confuse when to use each of them.
If you translate them literally, you will know:
- Qu'est-ce que (tu attends) ? = What is it that (you are waiting for)?
- Est-ce que (tu attends) ?= Is it that (you are waiting)?
- 1096
- "Attendre" means "to wait for", thus "pour" is superfluous.
- The interrogative must come before the verb when verb inversion is used.
Hence: "Qu'attendez-vous ?"
I thought the proper way to say what are you waiting for is vous attendez quoi? Why are there two ways of saying the same thing when you have taught us vous attendez quoi first and then throw this second way to us without teaching it? Grrr.
There are not 2 ways but 3:
- Formal register of speech: Qu'attendez-vous ? / Qu'attends-tu ?
- Standard register of speech: Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ? / Qu'est-ce que tu attends ?
- Informal register of speech: Vous attendez quoi ? / Tu attends quoi ?
- 2104
"Vous attendez quoi ?" n'est pas très joli même si cette traduction est parfaitement valable (pour ma part, je dis plutôt "vous attendez quoi là ?"). Je note qu'une phrase semble-t-il assez simple déclenche des débats enflammés. Merci encore au modérateurs pour leurs interventions éclairantes.
Because in this case, "what... for" does not mean "why".
"What are you waiting for?" = "What are you awaiting?"
"Pourquoi tu attends ?" = Why are you (a)waiting?
- 718
As is often the case, it's not given a context, however as far as I am concerned in the context I was thinking ie talking to someone, asking them why they weren't leaving, the two phrases are synonymous.
- 1096
He's right, the English sentence can be interpreted that way, with a hypothetical "what", although I hadn't spotted it before.
I now see it as a legitimate response.
After all, "pourquoi ?" was obviously derived from the concept of "for what?" at some time in the past!
- 1096
Because "Which are you waiting for?" doesn't make much sense as a sentence. Which what? Which bus?
- 1096
- "Attendre" means "to wait for", so you have too many "for"s in your sentence.
- "Quoi?" can only be used after the verb, before the verb "what?" becomes "que?".
=> "Est-ce que vous attendez quoi ?"
OR "Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?".
Ce que vous attendez roughly translates to « what you guys are waiting for »
- 1096
"Ce que" acts as a relative pronoun linking two clauses together via a common Object (as does "what" in English).
Since this is a question, you need the Interrogative Pronoun "Que ?":
"Qu'attendez-vous ?" or "Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?",
(equivalent to "What?" in English).
- 1096
It is not legit.
You can only place the interrogative (ie the question word/phrase) after the verb if you use informal word order: => "Vous attendez quoi ?".
You can only use verb-inversion if you use formal word order, (which means placing the interrogative before the inverted verb): => "Qu'attendez-vous ?".
Standard word order places "est-ce que" between the interrogative and the uninverted verb: => "Qu'est-ce que vous attendez ?"
(thereby providing an "easy" inverted verb in the form of "est-ce").
