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English: What's that?
German: "Was ist das?"
Dutch: "Wat is dat?"
Spanish: ¿Qué es eso?
French: "qu'est-ce-que c'est ?"What. the fuck?!
Agree. But you can say "C'est quoi ?" too. More "street language" but it's okay
«Qu’est-ce que c’est que ce bordel ?»
Hahaha "C'est quoi cette merde ?"
In Portuguese we actually can say "O que é isso?", basically the same as in Spanish, but I'd say I use more commonly "O que que é isso?", which seems closer to French version. Funny, had never thought about it like that.
Portuguese is what happens when a Spaniard speaks French while hungover
Although most French say "Qu'est-ce que c'est", it is worthy to note that the proper/formal French is "Qu'est-ce?". So strictly equivalent to "What is that", word for word. :)
Then ask someone who hasn't learnt French how many syllables there are in "qu'est-ce que c'est ?" And watch the look of horror on their face when you tell them it's just 3.