I thought it would be useful to take another look at how il y a transforms in colloquial language to y’a, and to y’a-tu when used as part of a yes-no question. It’s a frequently occurring feature, so it’s a good idea to become familiar with it.
In the OffQc guide 1000, sentence number 111 reads:
Y’a-tu moyen d’avoir un remboursement?
Is there any way to get a refund?
Any chance of getting a refund?
Y’a-tu moyen de is an informal equivalent of est-ce qu’il y a moyen de. You’ll remember that il y a is generally pronounced y’a in informal language. By adding tu after it, we can turn it into a yes-no question.
y’a-tu…?
= il y a-[oui ou non]…?
That tu is definitely not the second-person singular tu meaning you.
In the same way, tu in all of the following is used to ask a yes-no question:
C’est correct. It’s fine, ok.
C’est-tu correct? Is it fine, ok?
Ça se peut. It’s possible.
Ça se peut-tu? Is that possible?
J’ai vraiment dit ça, moi. I really said that.
J’ai-tu vraiment dit ça, moi? Did I really say that?
Back to y’a-tu…?, remember that this means is there…? or are there…? Wherever you might have used est-ce qu’il y a…?, you’re likely to hear y’a-tu…? used spontaneously in conversations, although questions with est-ce que remain entirely possible.
Y’a-tu quelque chose qui va pas?
Is something the matter? Is something wrong?
(Quelque chose might be pronounced informally as què’que chose, where què’que sounds like “kek.”)
Y’a-tu moyen de bloquer les alertes/les notifications?
Is there a way to block the alerts/notifications?
(e.g., on a smartphone)
In an older post on OffQc, we came across the use of y’a-tu moyen de in a scene from 19-2, when a father in a moment of anger yelled at his son:
Y’a-tu moyen d’êt’ obéi dans c’te maison-là?!
Is there any chance of being obeyed in this house?!
Êt’ is an informal pronunciation of être, where the -re ending isn’t enunciated. C’te is a contraction of cette. To pronounce it, first say te. Then put an s sound at the beginning of it: s’te.
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Understand spoken Québécois French and sound less bookish when speaking: 1000 examples of use (#945)
