• Norgur@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    English: What’s that?
    German: “Was ist das?”
    Dutch: “Wat is dat?”
    Spanish: ¿Qué es eso?
    French: “qu’est-ce-que c’est ?”

    What. the fuck?!

    • A_A@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      French-Québec : “Kossé ça?”
      French also : “C’est quoi?”
      … or : “Qu’est-ce?”

      Word for word of "qu’est-ce-que c’est ?” …
      …goes like : "What’s this that this is?
      …or : “What’s this which this is?”

      “Qu’est-ce?” sounds like the english “Case”.
      Since this is just one syllable it might be difficult to hear out of context.
      Edit : Delayed 8h because of DDOS attack

      • readthemessage@lemmy.eco.br
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        1 year ago

        I ended up replying to the original comment, but your translation to English made me realize that in Portuguese we commonly say “O que que é isso?” which is basically “qu’est-ce-que c’est?”

    • readthemessage@lemmy.eco.br
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      1 year ago

      In Portuguese we actually can say “O que é isso?”, basically the same as in Spanish, but I’d say I use more commonly “O que que é isso?”, which seems closer to French version. Funny, had never thought about it like that.

    • monsieur_jean@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Although most French say “Qu’est-ce que c’est”, it is worthy to note that the proper/formal French is “Qu’est-ce?”. So strictly equivalent to “What is that”, word for word. :)

    • Zagorath
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      1 year ago

      Then ask someone who hasn’t learnt French how many syllables there are in “qu’est-ce que c’est ?” And watch the look of horror on their face when you tell them it’s just 3.