"Y a-t-il du vent ?"
Translation:Is it windy?
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It might be the case that there is a reasonable reasoning behind this rule; however, grammar is seldom logic, it is most of the time arbitrary rules invented by people who sometimes (not all of them and not at all times) believe to be the righteous defenders and owners of the language.
And they are called l’Académie française.
You can read about Y a-t-il here (it is in French, évidemment):
http://www.academie-francaise.fr/y-til
Bon courage !
I think what Albert meant was why would y be placed before the inversion, while in the indicative, it is placed before the verb. Your link is about apostrophe and elision.
I assume the inversion a-t-il counts as a verb phrase, and therefore, y is placed before it because pronouns are always placed before the verb?
E.g. Tu en as besoin becomes En as-tu besoin?
That is my understanding, yes, when the pronouns are y or en. But my lexical & grammatical knowledge of French in this area is not as strong as I would like.
is there a difference in pronunciation between "Y a-t-il du vent" and "Y a-t-il du vin"?
I am not positive but I believe vent has a nasal a sound (IPA- vɑ̃) whereas vin has a nasal e sound like le pain (IPA- /vɛ̃/)
Thanks. I will listen more carefully, I should have mentioned that on my computer speakers they both sound the same.
Context seems especially important with French, but that could be said about most languages.
what does y-a-til mean? Is it both 'there are' and 'is it' because I thought is it was est-il
"il y a" is an impersonal phrase meaning "there is" or "there are." In formal questions the "il y a" is inverted and the "il" is switched to the end. However, it is hard to pronounce "y-a-il" so French adds a "t" to better pronounce and understand it, thus becoming "y a-t-il...?" or "y-a-til...?" Translated into English this means "is there...?" or "are there...?"
would it be normal for a fluent speaker to ask this as an intonation based question? i.e. Il y a du vent ?
Il y a du vent = "It is windy" therefore, Y a-t-il du vent ? = "Is it windy?"
Yes, I think so. I can find no reference to "C'est venteux". However the final link intimates that you can though I wouldn't phrase it that way.
https://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/lessons/weather-in-french
https://www.thoughtco.com/french-weather-vocabulary-le-temps-1371465
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/french-weather-vocabulary/
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Ripcurlgirl thank you for the links. before I knew about Duo I had paid for a French course on line... then I was introduced to Duo by one of my clients and I got hooked and addicted to Duo... and I am getting even more hooked since I found out about those terrific people like you I can ask and talk to. some moderators on this course are brilliant too
All the French mods are terrific. They are volunteers and work very hard to help learners.
found for you on google Ripcurlgirl , "Est-ce venteux ?" for "is it windy ?". Hope this helps.
Which one is the correct ? Y a-t-il du vent ? Or Y a-t-l du vent ? Please comment...!!
Is there a difference in pronunciation of vin (wine) and vent (wind)?
Is there a difference between pronouncing "Vin" and "Vent"?
If not, "Y a -t- il du vin?" Should be accepted too.
The only thing about duolingo os that they dont teach you words before they're in a sentance also they dont teach you past preasent and feture tenses and they dont teach you if a word is for a boy or girl. But no hate this is just my opinion also you would probobly be taking the language in school so your teavher would teach yo that. Besides that i love duolingo and try to use as much as possable
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What I mean is how does one say, is there a wind outside, or is there a wind? Because it is common to ask is there wind, or is there a wind ? Windy, commonly means there is substantial wind blowing. There is a wind, means that there is mild, but noticeable wind blowing. There is a difference. Help me out here Americans.
I checked to see if there were any earlier comments regarding "est-ce qu'il y a du vent?" and there was one, but no one answer it. My french teacher taught us "est-ce qu'il y a" Is this also correct?