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Attends-moi dans le couloir.

Attends-moi dans le couloir.
Wait for me in the hallway.
FromLesson 22inHardcore French

Breakdown of Attends-moi dans le couloir.

dans
in
me
me
attendre
to wait
le couloir
the hallway

Questions & Answers about Attends-moi dans le couloir.

Is "Attends" an imperative, and why does it end with -s?
Yes. It’s the informal singular imperative (addressing an implied “tu”) of attendre. For -re and -ir verbs, the tu-imperative keeps the final -s (e.g., attends !, finis !). Only regular -er verbs drop that -s (e.g., parle !). So it must be Attends-moi, not Attend-moi.
Why is there a hyphen between the verb and "moi"?
In affirmative imperatives, object pronouns follow the verb and are linked by hyphens: Attends-moi. In the negative, pronouns come before the verb and the hyphen disappears: Ne m'attends pas. The hyphen after the verb is mandatory in standard writing for the affirmative imperative with pronouns.
Why is it "moi" and not "me"?
In the affirmative imperative, me and te switch to the stressed forms moi and toi: Aide-moi, Regarde-toi. In the negative they revert to me/te: Ne m'aide pas, Ne te regarde pas. Special case: before y or en, moi/toi become m'/t' (e.g., Donne-m'en, Va-t'en). Here there’s no y/en, so it’s moi.
How do I say this to one person formally or to several people?

Use Attendez-moi dans le couloir for formal address or when speaking to more than one person. More polite options:

  • S'il vous plaît, attendez-moi dans le couloir.
  • Very polite/official: Veuillez m'attendre dans le couloir.
How would I make it negative?
Ne m'attends pas dans le couloir. In negative imperatives, the object pronoun goes before the verb (and elides to m' before a vowel sound), and there’s no hyphen.
Can I say "Attends pour moi"?
No. Attendre already means “to wait for” and takes a direct object. Say Attends-moi, not Attends pour moi. With pour, it would mean “for my sake,” which is different.
What changes if I drop "moi"?
Attends dans le couloir means “Wait in the hallway” (no longer “for me”). The pronoun moi is what encodes “for me.”
How do you pronounce the whole sentence?

Approximation: ah-tahn mwah dahn luh kool-wahr. IPA: [a tɑ̃ mwa dɑ̃ lə kulwaʁ].

  • Final -ds in attends is silent.
  • en/an in attends/dans is the nasal vowel [ɑ̃].
  • oi in moi/couloir is [wa].
  • The hyphen doesn’t affect pronunciation.
Why is it "dans le couloir" and not "au couloir" or "en couloir"?
For “in the hallway,” French uses dans le couloir. Au couloir isn’t idiomatic for simple location here, and en couloir is ungrammatical. You can also say dans le corridor, but couloir is more common.
Do I have to use "le"? Could it be "un"?
Use le when the hallway is specific/understood from context (e.g., the one right outside). Use un if it’s any hallway: Attends-moi dans un couloir. With no context, le often implies “the one we both know.”
Can I replace "dans le couloir" with a pronoun?
Yes, with y (“there”) if the place is known: in careful French, Attends-m'y. In everyday speech, most people avoid that cluster and say Attends-moi là-bas or Attends-moi là instead.
How do I turn this into a question (“Will you wait for me in the hallway?”)?
  • Informal intonation: Tu m'attends dans le couloir ?
  • With est-ce que: Est-ce que tu m'attends dans le couloir ?
  • Inversion (more formal): M'attends-tu dans le couloir ? With vous: Vous m'attendez… ? / Est-ce que vous m'attendez… ? / M'attendez-vous… ?
Are there softer, more polite alternatives than a bare imperative?

Yes:

  • Tu pourrais m'attendre dans le couloir ?
  • Pouvez-vous m'attendre dans le couloir, s'il vous plaît ?
  • Very formal/standard in public announcements: Veuillez patienter dans le couloir. (Here patienter means “to wait/be patient,” and it’s used without a direct object.)
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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).

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