"Do you have a smaller shirt?"
Translation:У вас есть рубашка поменьше?
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It's not wrong, but it works in few contexts.
«У вас есть поменьше рубашка?» could work the noun is the main piece of the information asked. I.e. unless you're asking "Do you have a smaller shirt?", with 'shirt' emphasised.
So, it could be used in a context like:
— У нас может быть что-то поменьше... 'We could have something smaller...'
— У вас есть поменьше рубашка? 'Do you have a smaller shirt?'.
In this example, «рубашка» constitutes the main piece of the information asked, and «поменьше» is a known information, it's already known you're looking for something smaller.
In most other contexts, «поменьше рубашка» doesn't work.
Also, the word order «У вас есть поменьше рубашка?» could be used in colloquial speech. In colloquial speech, the word order is generally less restricted, because the intonation helps to get the message through. However, written speech and formal language is stricter.
Duolingo generally doesn't allow non-neutral word orders in Russian. This is to make sure you learn the neutral word order first: it's better to learn the rules before learning how to break them. The general rule is that comparative degree of the adjectives comes after the noun.
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At a store, wouldn't it be assumed that they do have at least some shirts, and thus есть wouldn't be necessary?
This doesnʼt exactly work this way. You can drop «есть» if existence is not the main idea of the sentence.
In «У вас есть рубашка поменьше?», you're asking about the existence of a certain shirt. You want to know if they have a shirt or not. You can assume they have some other shirts, but you can't assume they have the shirt you're talking about. You want to know if they have it.
In «У вас рубашка поменьше?», existence is not important, so you assume a certain shirt exists and you're asking if this certain shirt is smaller. I.e. «У вас рубашка поменьше?» will be translated 'Is the shirt you have smaller?' or 'Is your shirt smaller?'
«Меньше» is the usual word for 'smaller, less, fewer'. «Поменьше» implies 'smaller/less/fewer to some extent': 'a little smaller, a little less, a little fewer'. With shirts, «поме́ньше» sounds more natural because you usually need just a shirt that is just a little smaller.
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Why is есть necessary here? I thought it was only necessary to clarify that they have the noun itself, but in this case, the focus is on the adjective.
I don’t think there’s a real reason.
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