Learn French: Vous attendez le bus ? - Are you waiting for the bus?

Vous attendez le bus ?

Are you waiting for the bus?

Breakdown of Vous attendez le bus ?

to wait / to wait for

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Questions & Answers about Vous attendez le bus ?

Why does the verb attendre end in -ez here?

Attendre (to wait) is a regular -re verb. To conjugate it with vous (you), you drop the -re ending to get the stem (attend-) and add the vous ending, which is -ez. This gives you vous attendez.

Why is there no French word for "for" before le bus?

In English, we say "wait for something", but in French, the "for" is already built into the meaning of the verb attendre. You never need to add a word like pour (for) after it. You just say attendre le bus (literally "to wait the bus").

Is it okay to ask this question without using est-ce que?

Yes! In casual, spoken French, it is very common to ask a question simply by keeping the normal sentence order (Vous attendez le bus) and raising your voice at the end to make it sound like a question. You could also say Est-ce que vous attendez le bus ?, but this shorter version is perfectly natural.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of vous in this sentence?

Yes, you do. Because vous ends in an 's' and attendez starts with a vowel, they link together in spoken French. This is called a liaison. The 's' connects to the next word and makes a "z" sound, so it sounds like "voo-zah-tahn-day".