Breakdown of Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ?
tu
you (informal singular)
la table
the table
sur
on
qui
who
avoir
to have
est-ce que
is it that / do / does (question marker)
voir
to see
marcher
to walk
l'insecte
the insect (m)
Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu as vu l'insecte qui marche sur la table ?
Why do we use qui here instead of que?
How do I know which form of the verb to use after qui?
Why is marche translated as "is walking" instead of "walks"?
French doesn't have a separate "present continuous" tense (verb forms like "is walking" or "are doing") like English does. The standard French present tense marche covers both "walks" and "is walking", and we just choose the one that sounds most natural in the English translation.
The first verb (as vu) is in the past tense. Why is the second verb (marche) in the present?
This matches the timeline of the events! "Have you seen" (tu as vu) is in the passé composé (past tense) because the action of noticing the bug just happened. However, the insect is currently still walking on the table, so marche stays in the present tense.
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