"I am waiting for my children."
Translation:J'attends mes enfants.
28 Comments
Because the vrb "attendre" does not construct as the English "wait". In English, "you wait for someone" (intransitive verb with preposition "for"). In French "vous attendez quelqu'un " (transitive verb)
As in the english "await"?
I await my children. However i cannot await FOR my children.
But in the other example: le tigre attend POUR le repas, why in that case we use the pour and here we don't?
"wait for something/someone" is an indirect verb whereas "attendre quelque chose/quelqu'un" is directly transitive.
Therefore you do not have to translate "for".
How do I know if a verb in the first form of the present tense should end in -s or not? e.g. j'attends or j'attend I feel that I'm just guessing all the time.
You have to learn conjugations, which are extensive in French:
j'attends, tu attends, il/elle/on attend, nous attendons, vous attendez, ils/elles attendent.
But most words seem to add the s for "tu". For example, "J'ai/tu as", "J'aime/tu aimes"..
All verbs at all tenses and moods have an -s when the subject is "tu".
The only exception is in imperative, for verbs of which infinitive ends in -er (1st group)
For "je" all verbs from the 1st group end in -e in indicative present. All other verbs end in -s except "avoir" (j'ai).
What is the context is a woman who's expecting twins? Would that be: "ma femme attend mes enfants", "ma femme attend les enfants". or "ma femme attend des enfants". Maybe the first and second convey that message?
She is probably, more simply, waiting for them to come out of school. To avoid any ambiguity, if you mean that your wife is "expecting" your children, you will use: "ma femme est enceinte de (nos) jumeaux"
It is not incorrect in absolute, since indeed "expect a child" is "attendre un enfant". But in this sentence, this specific meaning would not work.
Remember that when you hover on words and get a glossary, you are given several translations that can work in a number of instances, but not necessarily the right translation for the sentence you are working on.
45
Why is there no preposition des? As in "J'attends des mes enfants". Is there a built in preposition in attendre as in "to wait for"?
- 1773
How is "I like all my children" the same as "I am waiting for my children?"
EUH-A is quite ugly.
Hence the elision of "je" in front of a verb starting with a vowel or a non aspirate H
I am waiting is a continous present tense.
French does not have continuous tenses.
Therefore "I am waiting" and "I wait" can translate to a simple present tense "j'attends".
Besides, unlike "to wait for someone/something" the verb "attendre" does not need a preposition to introduce its object, so "attendre quelqu'un/quelque chose".
it says mark all correct answers and even underlined all so when i saw that option two and three were both J'attends mes enfants. i selected both two and three and it says i'm wrong cuz the real answer is J'attends mes enfants.
It supposed to be j'attend, wihhout rhe s on the ebd couse the s is only for second person - tu attends.
"Je" also adds an -s at the end of all regular verbs of which infinitive does not end in -er
- je finis
- j'attends
- je dors
why not J'attends mes enfants.= i am expecting my children=i am bearing my children?
