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L'archéologue vient voir les ruines quand ?

L'archéologue vient voir les ruines quand ?
When is the archaeologist coming to see the ruins?
From Lesson 97:Past time marker (il y a...)·French

Breakdown of L'archéologue vient voir les ruines quand ?

voir
to see
quand
when
venir
to come
l'archéologue
the archaeologist (m)
la ruine
the ruin

Questions & Answers about L'archéologue vient voir les ruines quand ?

Why is it vient voir and not vient de voir?
Venir followed directly by an action verb (like voir) simply means to come to do that action. So, vient voir means is coming to see. If you add de, it becomes the recent past you learned earlier: vient de voir would mean has just seen.
Why is the question word quand at the very end of the sentence?
In everyday spoken French, it is very common to leave the question word at the end of the sentence instead of moving it to the front. You could also ask Quand est-ce que l'archéologue vient voir les ruines ?, but keeping quand at the end sounds more casual and conversational.
The English translation says is coming, but vient is the simple present tense. Why?
French does not have a separate present continuous tense like the English am/is/are doing. The simple French present tense vient translates to both comes and is coming.
Since we are learning about il y a (ago), could I answer this question by saying il y a trois jours?
No, because il y a plus a time expression means ago, which is used for events that already happened in the past. This question asks when the archaeologist is coming (a present or future event). To say in three days, you would use dans instead: Il vient dans trois jours.

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