# What's the matter?



## aslan

Please let me explain why I am wondering the equivalent of this frase in other languages. 
In Turkish "*Ne var*" means "*What is there"* but also It is widely used to ask"*What is the matter*".

When I learned that this frase is also used in Italian in the same way.
"*Cosa c'é"* or " *che c'é* " I got surprised...

As far as I know for the same situation also "*what's cooking* ?" is used in english. So What do you use for similar situation in your own languages.Are there any similarities As I talked above.
Thank you all in advance


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## Outsider

I think that *Cosa c'è?* means "What is it?" 
The same sentence is used in Portuguese: *O que é?* Also, *O que foi? "What was it?"*, and *O que se passa? "What's happening?"*


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## aslan

Outsider said:


> I think that *Cosa c'è?* means "What is it?"
> The same sentence is used in Portuguese: *O que é?* Also, *O que foi? "What was it?"*, and *O que se passa? "What's happening?"*


 
My Italian is not that good But isn't it question form of the "*c'é"* like *"C'é una festa a casa mia sta sera?*" "Cosa c'é a casa tua sta sera?"


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## Chazzwozzer

*Neyin var?* or *Derdin ne?* => What's the matter with you?

Good memories: 

*The Simpsons, 10/3/1999, Brother's Little Helper *
*Homer:* Ah, this thing will do anything. watch, I'll ask it how many leagues in a furlong. No wait, I'll make it say, "What's the matter with you?" in Turkish! _[fiddles with keyboard]_
*Organizer:* Neyin var, derdin ne?


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## Outsider

Aslan, let's check the translation.


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## aslan

_"It can be both "what's up/what's the matter" and "what is there" depending on the situation."
_
Yes That s What I am saying.Actually,I was thinking that  Why " *What is there*" is being used for the meaning of "*what's the matter"* in. Italian and Turkish.I couldn t link these two words.
So Thats Why I asked this question.


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## badgrammar

French: "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a"?  Pronounced familiarly as "keski-ya?" (lit: What is there?).  But it can't really be used as "What's up?".  For that you might say colloquially "Comment va"?

Chazz I will have to look at that episode, my son has the entire collection.  It's been a great boost for his English (no joke!), the dialogues are excellent and varied and full of colloquialisms, neologisms, word play and even a few well said profound thoughts...  But that's another thread.


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## Chazzwozzer

Forgot to tell:

Literally,
*Neyin var?: *What do you have?
*Derdin ne? *What is your grief?

Mind you, if you say *Ne var?*, it will sound impolite and like you're trying to get rid of them. So, you may prefer the above and *"Ne oldu?"* _(What happened?)_ instead.



badgrammar said:


> Chazz I will have to look at that episode, my son has the entire collection.  It's been a great boost for his English (no joke!), the dialogues are excellent and varied and full of colloquialisms, neologisms, word play and even a few well said profound thoughts...  But that's another thread.


Here, the audio.


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## Outsider

Oh, yes, that too! *"O que é que tens?"* "What do you have?"


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## Whodunit

"What's the matter" means "Was ist los?" in German. I'm afraid "los" can't be translated literally. It kind of corresponds to "What's up?"

The problem is that "los sein" ('ist' is the 3rd singular present of 'sein') can have several meanings. I can't translate it.


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## Namakemono

In Spanish it's "¿Qué pasa/ocurre/sucede?", "¿Qué problema hay/tienes/tenéis?". There are tons of expressions dependng on the context, actually.
In Japanese it's "dôshita". "Dôshimashita" in formal contexts.


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## aslan

Chazzwozzer said:


> Forgot to tell:
> 
> Literally,
> *Neyin var?: *What do you have?
> *Derdin ne? *What is your grief?
> 
> Mind you, if you say *Ne var?*, it will sound impolite and like you're trying to get rid of them. So, you may prefer the above and *"Ne oldu?"* _(What happened?)_ instead.
> 
> 
> Here, the audio.


 haey Chazz Cool 

Thank you all, Teşekkürler.


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## linguist786

In *Gujarati* we say "Shu che?" which literally means "What is there?" but can be used to mean "What's wrong?"/"What's the matter?" 

*- just like TURKISH!   *

Same in *Urdu/Hindi*: "Kyaa hai?"


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## optimistique

In Dutch it's also the same:

What's the matter? = *Wat is er?* (= as you can probably guess: litt: _what is there_?)

Although, I think in Dutch it's an abbreviation of: *Wat is er aan de hand?*
which means exactly the same, but is litteraly: 'what is there on the hand?'


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## badgrammar

Excellent! Thanks for the sound file!  çok iyi! 



Chazzwozzer said:


> Forgot to tell:
> 
> Literally,
> *Neyin var?: *What do you have?
> *Derdin ne? *What is your grief?
> 
> Mind you, if you say *Ne var?*, it will sound impolite and like you're trying to get rid of them. So, you may prefer the above and *"Ne oldu?"* _(What happened?)_ instead.
> 
> 
> Here, the audio.


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## 0ana

Hi, 

In Romanian, "ce e?" has the both meanings, indeed,  "What is there?" and "What's the matter?"


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## Heba

In  Arabic: *ما الخطب؟* or *ماذا حدث؟*


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## Whodunit

Heba said:


> In Arabic: *ما الخطب؟* or *ماذا حدث؟*


 
If I understand they correctly, the two phrases could be translated as:

What happened?
What's the matter/concern/affair?

By the way, would *ما الحدث؟* (meaning "What's the incident?") work then?


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## Ilmo

Finnish:
In Finnish we say: *mikä hätänä?*, literally, what's the emergency, what's the trouble. If you are sure there is no emergency, you can say: *mistä on kysymys?*, literally what's the question about?


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## Chazzwozzer

0ana said:


> Hi,
> 
> In Romanian, "ce e?" has the both meanings, indeed,  "What is there?" and "What's the matter?"


Interesting. Please see this. Same phrase, different languages, different meanings.


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## aslan

Chazzwozzer said:


> Interesting. Please see this. Same phrase, different languages, different meanings.


But I think There is a pronunciation difference.  I guess It is pronunciated like 'ç' ( ch chair)  in Romanian language, different than "c"(j) .


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

Russian: В чём дело? - v chyom dyelo?

Chinese:  怎麼樣 - zenmo yang, or 怎麼會事 - zenmo huishi.


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## avalon2004

In Greek you can say this using any of the following:

*Τι συμβαίνει;* [ti simvéni] What's happening?
*Τι τρέχει;* [ti trékhi]  What's going down/on? _(Lit: What's running?)_
*Τι έχεις;* [ ti ékhis] What's up? _(Lit: What have you got?)

The final suggestion is probably nearest to "what's the matter?" in my opinion...
_


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## cherine

Whodunit said:


> By the way, would *ما الحدث؟* (meaning "What's the incident?") work then?


It's not wrong, but it's not commonly used. We usually use ما الأمر؟ ما الخطب ؟  (=what's the matter) or ماذا حدث ؟ = what happened.


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## vince

Thomas F. O'Gara said:


> Russian: В чём дело? - v chyom dyelo?
> 
> Chinese:  怎麼樣 - zenmo yang, or 怎麼會事 - zenmo huishi.



That is Mandarin, those sentences don't work in Cantonese.

Cantonese: 
乜事呀?
me si aa?

literally: what + matter/event + (emphasis particle)


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## lechatbleu

In Thai
Kurt arai kuen? - What's going on?
Pen arai? - What's wrong?/What's the matter?


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## elroy

In colloquial Palestinian Arabic (since this is an expression that is much more widely spoken than written, I think a translation into colloquial Arabic is more appropriate):

_shuu fii? _(lit. "What is there?")
_shuu 'l-'uSSa? _(lit. "What is the story?")
_shuu maalak?/shuu maalek?/shuu maalo?/shuu maalha?/shuu malkom?/shuu maalhom? _(lit. "What do(es) you/he/she/they have?")
_shuu Saar? _(lit. "What (has) happened?")


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## Etcetera

Thomas F. O'Gara said:


> Russian: В чём дело? - v chyom dyelo?


Other variants: 
Что такое? (Chto takoe?)
Что случилось? (Chto sluchilos'?) - literally, What has happened?
Что происходит? (Chto proiskhodit?) - literally, What is happening?


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## MarX

aslan said:


> Please let me explain why I am wondering the equivalent of this frase in other languages.
> In Turkish "*Ne var*" means "*What is there"* but also It is widely used to ask"*What is the matter*".
> 
> When I learned that this frase is also used in Italian in the same way.
> "*Cosa c'é"* or " *che c'é* " I got surprised...
> 
> As far as I know for the same situation also "*what's cooking* ?" is used in english. So What do you use for similar situation in your own languages.Are there any similarities As I talked above.
> Thank you all in advance


Hi Aslan!

In Indonesian we also often say "*Ada apa?*" (="What exists?") for "What's the matter?"
We also often say *"Kenapa?*" (="Why?"), which, by the way, is also a way to ask someone to repeat what (s)he said. Like "Pardon?" in English or "Cómo?" in Spanish or "Wie bitte?" in German.

Salam,


MarX


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## blue_jewel

In Tagalog we usually asked "Anong Nangyayari dito? (What's going on/happening here). also "Bakit? Anong nangyayari?" (Why? what's going on?) There's no really exact equivalent to that phrase in our language 


I hope I'm correct


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> In colloquial Palestinian Arabic (since this is an expression that is much more widely spoken than written, I think a translation into colloquial Arabic is more appropriate):
> 
> _shuu fii? _(lit. "What is there?")
> _shuu 'l-'uSSa? _(lit. "What is the story?")
> _shuu maalak?/shuu maalek?/shuu maalo?/shuu maalha?/shuu malkom?/shuu maalhom? _(lit. "What do(es) you/he/she/they have?")
> _shuu Saar? _(lit. "What (has) happened?")


 
Also, ما بك ma bika(i) (lit. "what is _in_ you?"), which is also used in different variants in collequal (shuu feek(i)/bik(i), eish feek(i)/bik(i), shbeek/ch...etc.)


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> Also, ما بك ma bika(i) (lit. "what is _in_ you?"), which is also used in different variants in collequal (shuu feek(i)/bik(i), eish feek(i)/bik(i), shbeek/ch...etc.)


 I've never come across _shuu/eesh fiik(i)_ used this way in Palestinian Arabic. Were you talking about other dialects?


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## kusurija

In Czech:
O co jde?/O co kráčí?
Co se děje?(What is happening)


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> I've never come across _shuu/eesh fiik(i)_ used this way in Palestinian Arabic. Were you talking about other dialects?


 
Yes, I've heard Emaraatis use it, I'm not sure if it's originally in their dialect or they are trying to "tone it down".


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## bb3ca201

In Gaelic, we most often say "Dé tha ceàrr?" (jay ha kyar?), literally "What is wrong?"


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## brian

Outsider said:


> I think that *Cosa c'è?* means "What is it?"
> The same sentence is used in Portuguese: *O que é?* Also, *O que foi? "What was it?"*, and *O que se passa? "What's happening?"*


"*Che c'è?*" is idiomatic and in fact means "What's wrong / What's the matter?" But you are right that in other contexts it can mean "What's that / What is it / What is there," for example:

_Che/Cosa/Che cosa c'è dentro questa scatola? = What's inside this box?_

Unless you meant "What is it?" in the sense of "What do you want / What's wrong," e.g.

_A: Umm... mom..?
B: What is it (, dear) / What's wrong?_
_A: I wrecked the car!

_Then yes. But here "what is it" and "what's wrong" are very similar. "Che c'è" works well here.


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## valdo

In *Latvian*:

Kas notiek?
Kas par lietu?


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## Saluton

To add to Etcetera's answer: что такое? is informal in Russian.


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## Encolpius

Yes, it does exist in Hungarian. 

Mi van? (lit.: what's there) - but it's unpolite, very familiar


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## linguist786

Question for *Arabic*-speakers, how about ما لك؟


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*:

_Kio misas?_ (What's the matter? / What's wrong?)


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## kusurija

In Lithuanian:
Kas yra? - What is(being)? But this sounds somewhat unpolite/irritated.
If someone asking/desiring You'll reply/ask:
Ko nori? - What do You want? 
Or (lettonism or Samogitian influence): Kas nutiko? - What happened?
Or (maybe Russicism) Kas atsitiko - What happened?
If You want know, what happened:
Kas darosi? What's happening/"making itself"?


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