wait until

Question

I seems to me that in most circumstances "attendre que + subjunctive" means "to wait until" and "jusqu'à ce que" is unnecessary. I asked this a few days ago and stil have not had a reply, so I checked in both Grevisse & Wartburg/Zumthor. They agree with me and even say the simple "que" is better.

Accepted Answer

Hi Ned, 
You did get a very detailed answer from Maarten ( which was marked correct)  -
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/attendre-que-vs-attendre-kusqu-a-ce-que
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

They are not the same but very similar:
Attendre que -- to wait forattendre à ce que -- to wait until
Les parents attendent que les enfants s'endorment. -- The parents wait for the children to fall asleep.
Les parents attendent jusqu'à ce que les enfants s'endorment. -- The parents wait until the children fall asleep.

Answer

Hi Ned,It's the nuance as Chris has explained in his examples.The point is that with "attendre que"   --  to await that.....  without further information there is no sense of duration.However with "attendre jusqu' à ce que"  --  to wait until...  there will be a sense of termination (limitation of ) the waiting, that is when the event (just until) takes place.I don't agree that "attendre que" can be reasonably translated to "wait until" unless there is further clear information about an end to the wait.So the key point is that of nuance.Jim

Answer

Actually, French/English dictionaries do translate "attendre que" as both "wait for" and "wait until". So perhaps Ned is correct that "jusqu'à ce que" is unnecessary?

For example:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/attendre-que

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/attendre/6209#912671