Nous attendons cinquante minutes.

Attendons is the 1st person plural present tense form of the verb attendre.

• attendre = to wait for
• nous attendons = we wait / we are waiting

So the ending -ons tells you the subject is nous = we.

In normal French, subject pronouns are usually not omitted, so nous is normally stated.

• Nous attendons = we are waiting

French verb endings do give information about the subject, but unlike Spanish or Italian, French usually still keeps the subject pronoun.

Also, in everyday spoken French, people often use on instead of nous:

• On attend cinquante minutes.

That is more conversational, while nous attendons sounds more standard or formal.

Because French attendre works differently from English wait.

In English, you usually say:

• wait for someone
• wait for fifty minutes

But in French, attendre takes a direct object, so there is no preposition like for before the person, thing, or length of time:

• attendre quelqu’un = to wait for someone
• attendre cinquante minutes = to wait fifty minutes

This is one of the most common things English speakers need to get used to with attendre.

Yes. The French present tense can often match both of these English forms:

• we wait
• we are waiting

French does not usually need a separate form like English am/is/are waiting. Context tells you which meaning is intended.

So Nous attendons could mean:

• a general present action
• an action happening now

Usually, French would more naturally say:

• Nous attendons depuis cinquante minutes.

That depuis is important when you mean the waiting started in the past and is still continuing now.

So there is a useful contrast:

• Nous attendons cinquante minutes.
  = we wait / are waiting fifty minutes, focusing on the duration as part of the action

• Nous attendons depuis cinquante minutes.
  = we have been waiting for fifty minutes

English speakers often expect for, but in this kind of ongoing-time expression, French often uses depuis.

No. This is a very important false friend.

• French attendre = to wait for
• English attend = to be present at, to go to, or sometimes to deal with

So:

• Nous attendons le bus. = We are waiting for the bus.
• Nous assistons au cours. or Nous allons au cours. = We attend the class.

So even though attendre looks like attend, it usually does not mean the same thing.

Because cinquante means fifty, and the noun after numbers greater than one is normally plural:

• une minute = one minute
• deux minutes = two minutes
• cinquante minutes = fifty minutes

The number cinquante itself does not change here. The plural marking appears on minutes.

French normally does not use an article before a noun when it is directly preceded by a specific number.

So you say:

• cinquante minutes
• not les cinquante minutes in this sentence

You just give the quantity directly: number + noun.

An article could appear in other contexts, but not in this basic counting structure.

A careful pronunciation is roughly:

• noo za-ton-don sank-ont mee-nyt

A few useful points:

• nous is pronounced noo
• there is a liaison between nous and attendons, so the silent s in nous is pronounced like z before the vowel:
  • nous attendons → noo-zattendons
• attendons ends with a nasal sound in -ons
• cinquante is pronounced roughly sank-ont
• minutes is pronounced roughly mee-nyt

So the start sounds like:

• Nous attendons → noo za-ton-don

The basic word order here is the standard French pattern:

• subject + verb + duration

So:

• Nous attendons cinquante minutes.

That is the normal, neutral order.

You could move things around only in special contexts for emphasis, but for a learner, this is the correct standard pattern to use.