Learn Hardcore French: Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent en silence. - In the waiting room, which is almost full, some patients are coughing, others are waiting in silence.

Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent en silence.

In the waiting room, which is almost full, some patients are coughing, others are waiting in silence.

Breakdown of Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent en silence.

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Questions & Answers about Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent en silence.

Why is it dans la salle d’attente and not en la salle d’attente or à la salle d’attente?

French normally uses dans to say in(side) a specific, bounded place: dans la salle, dans la voiture, dans la maison.

dans la salle d’attente = in the waiting room (inside it)
en is used more with materials, means, or some fixed expressions: en bois, en voiture, en classe.
à is used with more open or abstract places: à l’école, à l’hôpital, à la maison (as a fixed expression), à la gare.

Here, we want the idea of being inside a specific room, so dans is the natural choice: dans la salle d’attente.

What exactly does salle d’attente mean, and why is there a d’ instead of an article?

Salle d’attente is a compound noun meaning waiting room.

salle = room (feminine noun)
attente = waiting (noun; from the verb attendre)

They’re joined with de (which becomes d’ before a vowel) to show a relationship between two nouns: une salle d’attente = a room for waiting.

In French, this noun + de + noun pattern is very common:

une salle de classe = a classroom
un billet de train = a train ticket

So it’s not salle de l’attente; it’s just the fixed compound salle d’attente.

Why is it presque complète and not presque complet?

Complète agrees in gender and number with salle, which is feminine singular (la salle).

masculine singular: complet
feminine singular: complète
masculine plural: complets
feminine plural: complètes

Since we’re describing la salle (d’attente), we must use the feminine form: presque complète = almost full (speaking about the room).

Presque just means almost / nearly, and it doesn’t change; only complet / complète changes to agree with salle.

Why is presque complète placed after la salle d’attente and set off by commas?

Here presque complète is added as a descriptive aside about the waiting room, a bit like “the waiting room, almost full,” in English.

Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, …
literally: In the waiting room, almost full, …

The commas show that presque complète is parenthetical, extra information rather than being tightly integrated into the main structure.

You could also say, with a slightly different rhythm:

Dans la salle d’attente presque complète, certains patients…
(no commas; it’s then just a regular adjective phrase modifying salle).

What is the nuance of complet / complète here compared to something like plein / pleine?

Both can translate as full, but there’s a nuance:

complet / complète is often used for places, events, services that are fully booked / at capacity:
- La salle est complète. = The room is full (no seats left).
- Le spectacle est complet. = The show is sold out.
plein / pleine focuses more on being physically full of something:
- une valise pleine = a full suitcase
- un verre plein = a full glass

For a waiting room with (almost) all seats taken, presque complète is very natural French.

Why does the sentence start with Dans la salle d’attente? Could it also come later?

French can vary word order for emphasis, just like English.

Dans la salle d’attente, presque complète, certains patients toussent…
starts by setting the scene (location) first.

You could say:

Certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent en silence, dans la salle d’attente, presque complète.

That’s grammatically correct but less natural; the original sounds more like good written French, focusing first on where we are, then what people are doing.

What’s the difference between certains patients and something like quelques patients or des patients?

All three can mean “some patients,” but they don’t feel quite the same:

certains patients
Suggests a contrast or distinction: certain / some specific patients (as opposed to others).
It prepares the contrast certains… d’autres… → some… others…
quelques patients
Emphasizes a small number: a few patients. No strong contrast implied.
des patients
Just an indefinite plural: patients / some patients (neutral, general).

Here, certains patients… d’autres… is a standard pair meaning “some patients…, others…”.

Why is it certains patients toussent and not certains patients tousse?

The verb must agree with the subject in number and person.

certains patients = some patients → third person plural.
The present tense of tousser (to cough) for ils / elles is ils toussent.

So we need the -ent ending:

certains patients toussent = some patients cough / are coughing.

Remember: in spoken French, that -ent is silent; it just shows plural in writing:

il tousse (he coughs), ils toussent (they cough) are pronounced the same.

What does d’autres mean here, and why is there a d’?

D’autres here means “others” (as a pronoun): d’autres (patients) = other (patients).

The structure comes from de + autres:

After an expression like certains, French often uses d’autres to mean others:
- Certains patients toussent, d’autres attendent.
  Some patients cough, others wait.

So:

autres = others (adjective or noun, depending on context)
d’autres = literally of others, but idiomatically just “others”.

We don’t say ~des autres~ here; the fixed contrastive pair is certains… d’autres….

Why is there no noun after d’autres? Should it be d’autres patients?

We could say d’autres patients, but it would be repetitive. French allows dropping the noun when it’s obvious from context.

certains patients → we know we’re talking about patients
d’autres (patients) → other (patients)

So d’autres on its own is a pronoun refering back to patients, just like English others can stand for other people or other patients.

What is the nuance of attendent en silence instead of using an adverb like silencieusement?

Both are possible, but they feel different:

en silence = in silence
Very natural and common. It describes the state or atmosphere: they wait in a silent way.
silencieusement = silently
Grammatically fine, but more formal or literary here, and less idiomatic in everyday description.

French often prefers en + noun over an adverb in many cases:

parler en criant (speaking while shouting)
travailler en musique (working with music on)

So attendent en silence sounds smoother and more natural than attendent silencieusement in this context.

Could we just say attendent silencieux instead of attendent en silence?

That would not mean the same thing and would sound odd here.

silencieux / silencieuse is an adjective meaning silent / quiet (describing a person or thing):
- des patients silencieux = silent / quiet patients

If you said:

d’autres attendent silencieux,
it would sound like “others wait, (while) being silent”, but it’s a bit incomplete and awkward; you’d usually say d’autres restent silencieux.

To describe how they wait, the natural expression is attendre en silence = wait in silence.

Is there any difference in meaning between toussent and sont en train de tousser here?

In this context, both describe an action happening now, but:

toussent (simple present) is the normal, concise way:
Certains patients toussent = Some patients are coughing.
sont en train de tousser literally means are in the process of coughing and strongly emphasizes the ongoing nature of the action.

You’d only use être en train de + infinitive if you really want to stress “right now, at this very moment.” In most descriptions like this, the simple present toussent is preferred.