Why Qué estás haciendo?

Question

I am just learning Spanish and I found translation of "What are you doing ?" as "Qué estás haciendo?"

but If I break all the words , I found below translation:

Qué == What
estas == these
haciendo == doing

so, why we are using "Qué estás haciendo?" not "Que ustedes haciendo ?"

please help me to understand better.

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http://www.spanishdict.com/learn - ray76, Jul 11, 2015

You looked up "estas = these" and not "estás" = are you. - ian-hill, Jul 11, 2015

Answer 1

First: forget about translating word for word, it´s the kiss of death.

Second: when a letter has a tilde it is in effect a different letter from the same letter without the tilde. Estas .. These / Estás .. You are or are you.

so, why we are using "Qué estás haciendo?" not "Que ustedes haciendo ?"

"Haciendo" is a gerund and must be used with an accompaning verb to make sense, ie: ¿Qué estás / andas / me ves haciendo?

In time you will learn which verbs can be used with which gerunds to make sense.

Answer 2

¿Qué estás haciendo? Is a question using the singular "tú" pronoun. (just one) What are you doing?

¿Qué están haciendo ustedes? is the plural, "y'all". Whatcha'll doin'? ( a little slang here just for fun.

As Julian said, don't confuse "estas" these with "estás" you are or are you.

and "haciendo" is the doing part.

Now that several people have answered your question, how about filling out your profile, Hmmmmmmm? It is very helpful to us. Please. - Daniela2041, Jul 12, 2015

Answer 3

No Julian. Translating word by word does not equal kiss of death.

Had she/he looked for the correct word, in this case "está, most likely she would not have had the necessity of asking.