#perfectplanet
fair sedge
spiral orchid
Yet again, don’t go word by word…!
- comment = ‘how’
- est-ce que = question marker (pronounced /esk(ə)/)
- on = impersonal subject (‘one, they’)
- fait = ‘do’
- pour = ‘for’
- acheter = ‘to buy, buying’
So a literal translation would be, ‘how does one do for ordering?’
(There is no ‘can’ in this sentence)
mild dirge
yeah I was going to say that est-ce que ≠ can
wide plover
so "est-ce que" is like a question mark functionally
spiral orchid
yep!
mild dirge
est-ce que denotes that a statement is a question
wide plover
ok cool
spiral orchid
Originally it meant ‘is it that’, and you can still sort of think of it that way: ‘how is it that one buys’?
wide plover
its just grammar illiteracy im using a 4min "how to order at a bakery easy french" video for comprehension and creating an anki deck for vocab from the video until my comprehension is 100% without english subs
spiral orchid
Yeah, just doing that won’t get you anywhere
You need to actually learn grammar explicitly
mild dirge
grammar illiteracy is so relatable omg 😭🙏
wide plover
ok so just plug in french grammar into youtube and study
mild dirge
But yep I concur with what bradrn said above
spiral orchid
ok so just plug in french grammar into youtube and study
You could do that, yes
Unfortunately I have no idea what to recommend
Maybe ask in #🌈anglais-français or something
mild dirge
For questions, you could search for "how to form questions" or "how to ask for something in French" on youtube or any web browser
teal gull
Idk why anyone would look at "est-ce que" as anything other than what it literally means - "is it that". Calling it a question mark or whatever confused me a lot as a new learner.
When I just thought about it as a weird form of English "Is it that we're going to the store?" it clicked for me.
spiral orchid
Idk why anyone would look at "est-ce que" as anything other than what it literal...
Idk why anyone would look at "est-ce que" as anything other than what it literally means - "is it that"
Because, in practice, it only acts to mark a question
nothing more, nothing less
teal gull
Right but for learning purposes it becomes much less opaque (especially when you start talking about "qu'est-ce que" etc) to conceptualize it as a literal clause, rather than a punctuation mark.
spiral orchid
That’s fair
primal tapir
Right but for learning purposes it becomes much less opaque (especially when you...
Not sure how you'd modify it for qu'est-ce qui etc
solemn torrent
What do you mean, punctuation mark? Oh, you mistook question marker for question mark? One has -er, the other doesn't.
Est-ce que is a fixed expression that turns a statement into a question. That's why it's called a question marker. It may be a clause and literally mean "is it that" but we don't see it that way at all, it is already an expression in our minds.
primal tapir
It's kinda like how -tu/-ti is a yes/no question marker which would be hard to explain with literal translation
It can help understand why it's the whole long thing though
mellow quartz
Since you said it seems long, it's worth noting there are multiple ways to ask the same question
In English you could also say
"How would it be exactly that one would go about placing an order" while looking crazy pensive
or just "How do I order"
lol
« Comment commander ? » is the same question afaik