Why do French speakers say “tu vas faire quoi”?
Le futur avec « je vais »
A1 French listening practice · French from France · Picked for people who know a little
Textbooks teach Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire ? Everyday spoken French often leaves the question word exactly where the answer would go: Tu vas faire quoi ? Same meaning, no inversion, no est-ce que — you keep normal word order and let your voice rise at the end. The same move gives Tu vas où ?, Tu pars quand ? and Ça coûte combien ?
This is the informal end of a three-way choice: Où vas-tu ? (formal inversion), Où est-ce que tu vas ? (neutral), Tu vas où ? (casual). It is most at home with quoi, où, quand, combien and comment. Pourquoi and subject qui usually stay at the front — Pourquoi tu fais ça ? rather than Tu fais ça pourquoi ?, though the second is heard too.
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Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.