attendre vs. sáttendre à

Question

In one of the 10 question quizzes:
How would you say "Alain expected this situation to resolve itself." ?
J'ai repondu "Alain attendait que cette situation se résolve d'elle-même."
Mais la réponse correcte était: "Alain s'attendait à ce que cette situation se résolve d'elle-même."
Pourquoi? Où est la sense de souci ? L'anglais etait "expected this situation to resolve itself" qui indique une manque de souci.

Accepted Answer

Hi Michael,
1. Alain attendait que cette situation se résolve d'elle même = Alain was waiting for this situation to resolve itself 
2. Alain s'attendait à ce que cette situation se résolve d'elle même = Alain was expecting  this situation to resolve itself
The two sentences have different meanings and implications -
In the first one, it implies that Alain would wait before he intervened.
In the second one, it implies he would not need to do anything as he fully expected it to be resolved by itself.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Gargle. I'm stuck on this too. I've whizzed thru to this point. Explanations have always been clear. Not this one. In English I don't see the difference you are trying to point out. Expecting and waiting don't appear to me to necessarily vary in any suggestion of foreboding. You can expect positive or negative outcomes. The word itself doesn't clarify which. I'm simply stumped despite reading and rereading your explanations.

Answer

Merci Cécile,Je comprends maintenant.Attendre: "to wait"S'attendre à: "to expect", avec ou sans souci. Je pense que le "souci" n'est pas assez importante dans ces cas, car si "attendre" a le sens "to expect", comment dirait-on "to wait" ? Et "s'attendre à", ça a un sens de "expect" et/ou d'inquiétude.Ça va bien. Merci bien.