Le public va applaudir la pièce dans quelques secondes.

Questions & Answers about Le public va applaudir la pièce dans quelques secondes.

Why do we use dans here instead of en to say in?
When talking about the future, dans followed by a time expression means in a certain amount of time from now. So, dans quelques secondes means the clapping will happen a few seconds from this very moment. You would use en to say how long an action takes to complete, rather than when it will start.
Doesn't la pièce usually mean a room or a coin?
Yes, pièce is a very versatile word! While it often means a room or a coin, in the context of an audience (le public) or a theater, it means a play. This is actually short for une pièce de théâtre.
Why is the verb singular (va) when an audience is made up of many people?
Even though le public represents a large group of people, it is grammatically a singular noun. You treat it as a single unit, so you use the singular il (he/it) form of the verb aller, which is va.
How do we use the word quelques?
Quelques translates to a few or some. It is a plural word, which is why the noun that follows it must also be plural, like secondes. You use it when you want to express a small, unspecific number of things.

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