quatre-vingts

Creazle@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 777 points –
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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?!

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

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?"

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.

Portuguese is what happens when a Spaniard speaks French while hungover

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. :)

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.