Breakdown of Pourquoi est-ce que vous vous disputez ?
vous
you (plural/formal)
est-ce que
is it that / do / does (question marker)
pourquoi
why
se disputer
to argue
Questions & Answers about Pourquoi est-ce que vous vous disputez ?
Why are there two vous right next to each other in this sentence?
The first vous is the subject (you). The second vous is a reflexive pronoun that means "yourselves" or "each other". The verb here is se disputer (to argue), which is reflexive in French, so it always requires that extra pronoun.
Is disputer a false friend? It looks like the English word "dispute".
Yes! While it can translate to "dispute" in very formal contexts, in everyday French, the reflexive verb se disputer is the standard way to say "to argue" or "to have a verbal fight".
Since this lesson is about the passé composé, how would I change this sentence to the past tense?
Reflexive pronouns always stay right in front of the conjugated verb. In the passé composé, that means placing it before the auxiliary verb être: Pourquoi est-ce que vous vous êtes disputés ? (Why did you argue?).
Can I drop est-ce que and just use inversion to ask this question?
Yes, you can invert the subject and verb to ask Pourquoi vous disputez-vous ? Notice how the reflexive pronoun (the first vous) stays in front, while the subject pronoun moves behind the verb with a hyphen. Using est-ce que avoids this juggling, which is why it is so popular in spoken French!
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