Breakdown of Nous y voyons des piétons attendant au carrefour.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
des
some (plural indefinite)
au
to the / at the (masculine singular)
voir
to see
attendre
to wait / to wait for
y
there (pronoun) / to it
le piéton
the pedestrian
le carrefour
the intersection
Questions & Answers about Nous y voyons des piétons attendant au carrefour.
How does attendant replace a relative clause here?
Attendant is the present participle of attendre (to wait). In this sentence, it replaces the relative clause qui attendent (who are waiting). You can say des piétons qui attendent or des piétons attendant; both mean the same thing, but using the present participle is a bit more formal and concise.
Since piétons is plural, shouldn't attendant have an s at the end?
Why is y placed before the verb voyons?
In French, the pronoun y (meaning there in this context) almost always goes directly before the conjugated verb it belongs to. Even though we say 'We see pedestrians there' in English, the French structure is literally 'We there see' (Nous y voyons).
Why do we use au before carrefour?
Carrefour (intersection) is a masculine noun. To say 'at the', you must combine the preposition à with the masculine definite article le. In French, à + le always contracts into au.
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