# What is (going) wrong?



## ThomasK

I think that is a common phrase/ question in every language: one sees that something is wrong (children are crying, people are waiting alongside the road, there is a huge queue, ...) and then one asks that question in order to get an explanation... 

Dutch: 
- *wat scheelt er ? *('schelen' has the same root as 'verschil', difference, and refers to things being different from ... [the way they 'should' be]; therefore we say that some people are _scheel_, meaning that they are cross-eyed : one eye looks in a different direction than the other) 

- *wat is er aan de hand? *(lit.: _what is at the hand? _or something the like - but understood as: what is happening? )

What is your equivalent for that (and its origin if possible)?


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## DearPrudence

In *French*, I would say, by order of 'commonness':
*"Qu'est-ce qui se passe ?"* (literally:_ 'What is going on/happening?'_)
*"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ?"* (literally:_ 'What is there?'_) (for someone crying, sad,...)
*"Qu'est-ce qui ne va pas ?" *(literally: '_What is not going right?'_) (for someone crying, sad,...)

We also have a special verb ("*clocher*": (verbe) : Du latin populaire cloppicare, de clopus 'boiteux' (_lame, wobbly_). (wiktionaire)) but we wouldn't really use it to ask someone who's crying what is going on (but I just thought I would mention it since it looks pretty funny, 'clocher' as a noun meaning 'clock tower' and 'cloche' = bell. I didn't know about the 'boiter' thing).


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## ThomasK

I had thought of _clocher_, which I remembered because in Dutch we can say 'Het klopt' (_c'est vrai_, it is correct), which I thought was strange because they seemed alike and yet were so different in meaning (aaarrrrhhh, folk etymology). But now I understand the original meaning! Merci...


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## Radioh

As far as I'm aware, what we(or only me, perhaps) say will depend on the context. If I see a child crying, I'd say "What's wrong with you ?"; and If I see  a huge queue on the street, I'd ask "What's happening ?",... *Gì thế ?*(What's up ?) can be used in any situations, but only say "what's up" to friends, of course.


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## ThomasK

I thought there would be a standard phrase for (supposed) problems. Can you analyse *Gì thế *? Or is it just 'What + is wrong' ?


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## apmoy70

In Greek the generic question is *«τι συμβαίνει;»* [ti sim'veni?] --> _what is happening?_
Depending on context one can be more specific and ask *«τι σου/σας συμβαίνει;»* [ti su (=2nd person sing. weak form of possessive pronoun)/sas (=2nd person pl. or formal weak form of possessive pronoun) simveni?] --> lit. _what of you is happening?_.

V. *«συμβαίνω»* [sim'veno] --> _to take place, happen, occur_ < Classical v. *«συμβαίνω» sŭmbaínō* --> lit. _to be joined to, come to an agreement, come to terms_ metaph. _events come to pass, fall out, happen_ < compound; prefix, preposition and adv. *«σύν» sún* (Attic *«ξύν» ksún*) --> _with, together_ (with obscure etymology) + Classical v. *«βαίνω» baínō* --> _to go_ (PIE *gʷem-/*gʷeh₂-, _to step, go, come, approach_ cf Skt. गच्छति (gacchati), _to go_; Lat. venīre, _to come, approach_; Proto-Germanic *kwemaną, _to come_ > Ger. kommen, Eng. come, Dt. komen, D./Nor. (Bokmål) komme, Nor. (Nynorsk) kome/koma, Swe. komma)


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## ahmedcowon

In Arabic,

ما الخطب؟ *ma al-khatb?* (what is the matter?)
ماذا يحدث هنا؟ *mādha yaḥduθu huna?* (what is happening here?)

In Egyptian Arabic, we say:

فيه إيه؟ *fi eih?* (what is there?)
إيه اللي بيحصل؟ *eih illi byeḥsal?* (what is happening?)


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## ThomasK

There are no specific questions focusing on a presumable problem then? I thought that would have been the case... Nothing then like 'What is going wrong'?


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## Словеса

Russian:
что такое? ("what is it?", literally, "what such [is it]?"),
что случилось? ("what happened?"),
что не так? ("what is not right?", literally, "what is not so?"),
что с тобой? ("what happened to you?", literally, "what is with you?"),
почему такая очередь? ("why such queue?"),
что здесь происходит? ("what is happening here?"),
кого вы здесь ждёте? ("whom you are waiting here for?"),
and so on.
The former four are okay in the case of the child crying, the latter three are okay in the case of the queue forming or people waiting on the street.


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## rusita preciosa

In Russian:
*в чём дело?* /v tchiom delo/ - what's the matter (lit., in what [is the] affair)
*что не так?* /tchto ne tak/- what's wrong (lit., what is not like that)
*что случилось?* /tchto slutchilos'/ - what happened
*что проиходит?* /tchto proiskhodit/ - what is happening

_cross-posted with Словеса_


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## ThomasK

I see some negative words then (not right, such a queue, wrong/not like that).

BTW: 
- @ Spoveka (?): is 'the queue' literally a queue? 
- @RP: s the 'affair' word (/delo/ ?) always used in a negative sense?


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## rusita preciosa

ThomasK said:


> BTW: is the 'affair' word (/delo/ ?) always used in a negative sense?


Not at all. It is a very neutral word, could mean affair (without the English meaning of "having a side relationship") or business, matter, etc...
It has the same root as *делать* (to do)


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## Radioh

ThomasK said:


> I thought there would be a standard phrase for (supposed) problems. Can you analyse *Gì thế *? Or is it just 'What + is wrong' ?



Unfortunately, there is not a standard phrase. As for "gì thế ?" it literally means "what is that ?".
Come to think of it, ThomasK, is it really appropriate to ask a child crying "What's happening/going on ?"(in English).


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## marrish

In Urdu: کیا مسئلہ ہے؟ kyaa mas'alah hai? What's the problem/trouble?
کیا ہوا ہے؟ kyaa hu'aa hai? What's happened? کیا ہو رہا ہے؟ kyaa ho rahaa hai? What's going on/ What's happening?
کیا چکر ہے؟ kyaa chakkar hai? What's the matter? (lit. a circle, a whirl, but fig. a perplexity, an affair).


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## Словеса

ThomasK said:


> - @ Spoveka (?): is 'the queue' literally a queue?


Yes, it is. There is nothing negative about it. In English, the combination "such a" is negative, as far as I know, but the corresponding Russian word is not: "such a fool!" is possible, but "такой дурак!" (the same word as I used) is not. The negative versions would be "что за дурак!" (non-word-by-word, "what kind of fool!") and "что за очередь!" ("what kind of queue!"), respectively.


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## ThomasK

@Radioh: I am not a native speaker, but I could imagine a situation in which one suspects a child has been hurt by someone, and then, I suppose, that would be possible. In Dutch we would really ask: 'Wat scheelt er?' So: 'What is wrong ?', but mainly in the sense of: what is it that gives you a bad feeling, makes you feel bad? That is quite normal in any language or culture, isn't it? Like: 'What is the matter ?'

@ Marrish: so the terms are used in some pejorative sense, I guess, whereas they are not pejorative in se. 

@ Spoveka: yet, queues are generally considered unpleasant, aren't they? I could imagine a parallel with 'What is the matter?' 'matter' is neutral, I suppose, but here it might sound a little negative... 

As a matter - but that is just a hypothesis - I think that someone is asking for the 'heart of the matter' because there is some chaos that prevents him from helping, or simply seeing how he can help.


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## Словеса

ThomasK said:


> @ Spoveka: yet, queues are generally considered unpleasant, aren't they?


That depends on whether you personally have to stay in it and lose time or temper... Also, even an unpleasant thing may have a neutral name, may it not?


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## ThomasK

For sure, names can be considered or are descriptive, or no, referential, but somehow one could say that the difference between 'a queue' and 'a row' is the negative connotation, I think. I am not good at cognitive psychology, but is the name of something unpleasant neutral? Descriptive, yes, or 'referential' would be better, I suppose. But for example: problems can be smaller or bigger, but doesn't the term at least refer to an intrinsically negative content?_ [We need not go into this further, but you got me going... ;-)]_


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## Словеса

ThomasK said:


> For sure, names can be considered or are descriptive, or no, referential, but somehow one could say that the difference between 'a queue' and 'a row' is the negative connotation, I think.


In Russian, очередь is очередь is очередь, that's all I can say; no two words. The content is not _intrinsically_ negative, don't you find? Same for 'problems' (people may like certain problems). I mean, queues are better than crowds where you would have to beat everyone else to get where you want. For example. ;-) All the more nothing unusual that we can separate the concept and the emotion that this concept may cause.


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## ThomasK

I still wonder whether you are right, but this is not the place to develop that topic, and it is quite a hard one, I am afraid.


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## rusita preciosa

ThomasK said:


> @ Spoveka: yet, queues are generally considered unpleasant, aren't they? I could imagine a parallel with 'What is the matter?' 'matter' is neutral, I suppose, but here it might sound a little negative...


I have a feeling there might be confusion here...
For Russian the only reason a queue was mentioned is in response to one of the examples in the OP. 


ThomasK said:


> (children are crying, *people are waiting alongside the road, there is a huge queue*, ...)


There is no Russian expression with "queue", meaning "What is wrong".


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## Словеса

rusita preciosa said:


> For Russian the only reason a queue was mentioned is in response to one of the examples in the OP.


Yes, exactly. As Radioh pointed out for Vietnamese, the exact question depends on the situation very much. There is no question that works well whenever something appears to be wrong, I think.


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## ThomasK

Словеса said:


> There is no question that works well whenever something appears to be wrong, I think.


I really don't understand . In general, as far as I can see, attention is triggered precisely by what is wrong. So we then enquire, I think, what is going on, what is wrong? Our question 'Wat scheelt er?' strictly implies: what is "deviant [from the normal situation]? And I believe 'What is the matter?' is about the same as 'What is wrong?' I tried to explain that in a previous message... To me the question is almost self-evident in that situationk. But there may be some kind of misunderstanding, but I don't have a clue where...


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## Encolpius

Hungarian: Mi a baj? (what's the problem)


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## ancalimon

Turkish:

Sorun nedir? (What is the problem?)
Neyin var?  ((literally) You have got "what?")


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## ThomasK

May I ask what the Hungarian and Turkish words for 'problem' (difficulty, ...) here are? _Baj _and _nedir_? Do they have a special root?


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## ancalimon

Nedir:  what is? (literally: it is a what?)

Sorun: problem > it comes from *sōr meaning "to ask". *sör probably comes from the ProtoTurkic form of Turkish "söy(le)" meaning "say".


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## Radioh

Словеса said:


> ... There is no question that works well whenever something appears to be *wrong*, I think.


"Wrong" is the key word, I suppose. If it seems that something wrong is happening "what's wrong ?", which literally means "có gì sai à ?", is the standard question.


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian:

Kaj ja narobe? 
Kaj je šlo narobe? (past time)

German:
Was ist falsch? 
Was ging falsch? (past time)

Croatian: 
Što nije u redu?
Što nije bilo u redu?


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