# EN: De quelle couleur sera l'auto qu'il s'achètera ?



## coup de hache

Bonsoir!

Comment diriez-vous en anglais "De quelle couleur sera l'auto qu'il s'achetera?" Je ne vois qu'une solution: "What colour will the car he'll buy be?" Est-ce correct?

Merci d'avance!

CdH


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## Jeanne75

Hello,

For me be does not have to be at the end of the sentence... In English the verb is almost always just after the subject in affirmative sentences, so just before in questions:

What will be the colour of the car he will buy / Which colour will be the car he will buy.

Cheers


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## CapnPrep

coup de hache said:


> Je ne vois qu'une solution: "What colour will the car he'll buy be?" Est-ce correct?


Ce n'est pas la seule solution, mais c'est correct. Je dirais plus naturellement _What color will the car he buys be? _​


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## SwissPete

What comes most naturally to me would be: "What color car is he going to buy?"


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## mpatricksweeney

I agree with Pete.  If you're after the most natural,
What color car is he buying/going to buy?


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## coup de hache

Merci a tout le monde!


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## Maître Capello

SwissPete said:


> What comes most naturally to me would be: "What color car is he going to buy?"


That turn of phrase looks odd from a grammatical standpoint because _color_ seems to play the role of an adjective modifying _car_, hence meaning _What non-black-and-white car is he going to buy?_ Is the phrase properly constructed? Is it colloquial?

By the way, if asked, _What color TV is he going to buy?_, what would you understand?
a) _What color is going to be the TV he buys?_
b) _What TV showing images in color is he going to buy?_


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## coup de hache

Il para*î*t que cette tournure est répandue aux Etats-Unis, il y a au moins trois personnes y résidant qui ont proposé cette variante. A moi aussi elle me semble sinon bizarre, du moins ambigu*ë*, mais ce n'est pas à moi d'en juger...


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## SwissPete

Maître Capello said:


> That turn of phrase looks odd from a grammatical standpoint because _color_ seems to play the role of an adjective modifying _car_, hence meaning _What non-black-and-white car is he going to buy?_ Is the phrase properly constructed? Is it colloquial?
> 
> _[...]_


From a grammatical standpoint, it may not be properly constructed, but it is colloquial.


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## frederic fatoux

What about 'What color did he choose for his new car' ?

As a French native, I think that the problem comes from the word-to-word translation and from the syntax of the French sentence. To be honest "De quelle couleur sera l'auto qu'il s'achetera" would not be what I would teach to someone learning French. Where does the 'de' comme from. Hence, the problem in English


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## CapnPrep

Maître Capello said:


> Is the phrase properly constructed? Is it colloquial?


It is completely natural for me, but not all English speakers use it or accept it. It works with many attributes other than color (size, flavor, etc.). See the following thread (and the English Only threads that it links to):
EN: quelle taille de X ?



Maître Capello said:


> By the way, if asked, _What color TV is he going to buy?_, what would you understand?
> a) _What color is going to be the TV he buys?_
> b) _What TV showing images in color is he going to buy?_


The question is ambiguous (but of course "ambiguous" ≠ "incorrect").


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## coup de hache

frederic fatoux said:


> To be honest "De quelle couleur sera  l'auto qu'il s'achetera" would not be what I would teach to someone  learning French.


Comment construiriez-vous cette phrase, alors?


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## frederic fatoux

coup de hache said:


> _To be honest "De quelle couleur sera l'auto qu'il s'achetera" would not be what I would teach to someone learning French.
> 
> _Comment construiriez-vous cette phrase, alors?



Voici des propositions 

Quelle sera la couleur de sa prochaine voiture ?
Quelle sera la couleur de la voiture qu’il va acheter (idée de going to) ?
Quelle sera la couleur de la voiture qu’il achètera (idée de will) ?

Par contre nous dirons « Il l'a prise en bleu ? - de quel bleu s'agit-il?"; "Il l'a prise en bleu nuit et pas en bleu pétrole"

C’est ce que j’enseignerais à des personnes qui apprennent le français. Et pour qu’elles ne soient pas perdues une fois arrivées en France, je leur dirais que les phrases suivantes sont fréquentes :

La voiture qu’il va acheter, elle est quelle couleur ?
Qu’est-ce qu’il a choisi comme couleur pour la voiture qu’il va acheter ?
Il a choisi quoi comme couleur pour sa voiture ?


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## coup de hache

Merci, Frederic! C'est ce que j'appellerais épuiser la question!


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## Maître Capello

SwissPete said:


> From a grammatical standpoint, it may not be properly constructed, but it is colloquial.


Do you mean to say that it wouldn't be suitable in (careful) writing?

By the way, what about the following phrase, which is what I would have come up with as a non-native?

_What color is/will be the car he is going to buy?_ (Unless the car doesn't exist yet, the present sounds more natural to me than the future, in either language.)

PS. Thanks CapnPrep for the links to the EO threads. Those discussions are quite interesting!


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## mpatricksweeney

Maître Capello said:


> Do you mean to say that it wouldn't be suitable in (careful) writing?
> 
> By the way, what about the following phrase, which is what I would have come up with as a non-native?
> 
> _What color is/will be the car he is going to buy?_ (Unless the car doesn't exist yet, the present sounds more natural to me than the future, in either language.)
> 
> PS. Thanks CapnPrep for the links to the EO threads. Those discussions are quite interesting!



Yes, I think that's likely proper, MC.  The content of the question has the feel of dialogue; it's hard to formalize such a conversational tone.  In fact, with this question, we'd more likely say "what color car's he getting?"  The more formal, the stiffer and more uncomfortable this question becomes, which CdH apparently felt in her (technically correct) translation.  
Incidentally, although we say "what color car...?" we wouldn't say "the color car he bought is blue."  Rather, he bought a blue-colored car or the color _of the_ car [he bought] is blue.


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